A tiny Pride flag outlasts dispute, still flies

It’s smaller than a breadbox — or even a mailbox. It’s a tiny rainbow flag, a universal symbol of diversity in the LGBTQ+ community. It’s most visible during Pride Month every June as a brightly colorful reminder that we all deserve each other’s respect.

Such a simple concept. But that’s not what happened in Oakland Park.

After Bob Plominski and his husband, Mike Ferrari, attached to their mailbox a Pride flag, no bigger than a standard piece of paper, members of the Eastland Cove Homeowners Association — with too much time on their hands — decided the flag violated the group’s bylaws. Then a notice of violation arrived with an order to remove the flag or face a $50 fine and $10 a day for each day the flag remained.

The story got picked up everywhere from Miami to Australia, where some readers, like us, couldn’t believe the pettiness of it all.

The association said that under Florida law, in Chapter 720.304(2)(a), homeowners can display only the flags of the U.S., Florida, armed forces or POW/MIAs. In other words, the Florida Legislature has expressly prohibited display of any other flags.

But it became apparent that something was seriously amiss here. For one thing, the property deed covenants, in a section entitled “antennas and flagpoles,” restrict use of a flagpole that displays a flag.

But on a 3 to 2 vote, board members overlooked the fact that this case does not involve a flagpole, so they decided the restriction must apply to any flag display. They said their goal was to uphold their rules, not to ostracize a popular symbol of the LGBTQ+ community.

This needless controversy is really not about gay rights. It’s about a homeowner’s right to freedom of expression without infringing on anyone else’s rights.

Board chairman Robert Brosseau said the association could have been sued for not acting on a complaint, but that he personally saw no issue with the Pride flag. “I was very upset that it was even brought up,” Brosseau told The New York Times. “I don’t have a problem with (it).”

Both sides dug in. Ferrari insisted he had done nothing wrong — he was right — and that the flag would stay up, despite the threat of fines.

“I have the right to put up a Pride flag in celebration of what our gay community has fought for for so long,” Ferrari told the Times. “It’s a flag of happiness and joy and celebration and there’s nothing mean about it. And it’s a pretty flag.” We salute him for not backing down.

At a special meeting Wednesday, board members wisely acquiesced and ended the controversy. On a 4 to 0 vote, they dropped the violation and approved a definition of a flagpole as “any permanent pole installed in the ground.”

Plominski said he wrote down the definition word for word.

Plominski, 63, sales director for a seashell company, moved to South Florida from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the ’90s, in part to get away from the harsh Midwest winters. He and Ferrari, 58, have lived for a decade in the Eastland Cove community, a small, well-kept place with 34 families, nestled west of Powerline Road, south of Prospect Road.

Another oddity about this case is that Plominski and Ferrari have flown flags before, such as during the March for Our Lives after the Parkland shooting and for political candidates — with no problems. He said it’s common for residents to briefly display flags for favorite sports teams, using the Pittsburgh Steelers as an example, and nobody made a big deal about that.

People attach balloons to mailboxes when a baby is born or someone graduates or gets married. They celebrate a day or two and then take them down. This isn’t about enforcing bylaws and threatening people with fines. It’s what defines a place and gives it life and spontaneity.

Plominski said he and Ferrari love their little oasis, surrounded by Fort Lauderdale, because of the neighborhood’s diversity, with gay and straight couples, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians, making it a true microcosm of South Florida.

“It’s so rich in diversity. That’s what makes it cool, you know?” Plominski told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.

The pages of yesteryear’s newspapers are full of stories about clashes between Broward homeowners associations and residents. It goes on all over but seems to happen with greater frequency here.

In Tamarac’s Golf Pointe subdivision in 1997, a man was cited for leaving a Toyota 4Runner in his driveway for more than four hours, a violation of an anti-riffraff rule.

In the Turtle Run community in Coral Springs, an association went bonkers when a homeowner planted 19 trees on his lot in 1995 without the express written consent of the bylaws police.

Also in Coral Springs, a homeowner who happened to be the deputy police chief in Delray Beach, was told in 2010 to take down the phrase “God bless America” from his garage door.

As long as homeowners’ associations exist, and some people have too much time on their hands, these disputes will keep happening.

The Oakland Park case ended happily in more ways than one. As controversy raged, Plominski went door-to-door, handing out Pride flags. He said more than a dozen residents displayed them.

“I went there and thanked them, and they said, ‘Yeah, sure. It’s not a problem,’ ” Plominski said.

Good for Plominski and Ferrari for standing tall. And good for their neighbors for standing with them. We can all take pride in that.