Gay pride flag should be one-off

It is understandable that Calgary would join other cities across Canada in flying the rainbow-coloured gay pride flag at city hall during the Sochi Winter Olympics.

It’s a way of making a statement against the oppressive anti-gay legislation Russia has enacted and the persecution and arrest of gay rights activists.

The fact that the flag will be flying for the duration of the Olympics is unusual. Organizations can formally ask that their flag be flown — as did Gay Calgary Magazine publisher Steve Polyak in this case — but the city’s flag policy states it is to be only for one day and then the flag must be taken down.

However, Mayor Naheed Nenshi apparently has used his discretion to decree that the flag will stay up until the Olympics ends.

This sets an uncomfortable precedent, frankly.

It opens the door for other groups to use the community flagpole outside city hall to demand that they, too, should have their flags flown for the duration of some event that is meaningful to them, including if these flags are being used to make some sort of political statement.

On Monday, Nenshi said that he hadn’t received permission from the Canadian Olympic Committee to fly the Olympic flag by last Friday.

In fact, during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the city wasn’t permitted to do so, as former host cities can have just one Olympic flag. That one resides in council chambers.

Regardless, this is not about whether the Olympic flag should fly; it’s about the gay pride flag flying. It should be a one-off event.

The flagpole at city hall is in a political statement-free zone and it should return to that status.