Mayor of Salisbury, Md. cancels Pride flag display
The City of Salisbury, Md., will not fly the Pride flag outside the city office building in downtown Salisbury. This will mark the first time in five years that a Pride flag will not fly at the city’s office for Pride month.
Randolph J. Taylor, the mayor of Salisbury, told the Blade that the choice not to raise the flag was based on being “fair” and “transparent.” “The administration’s position on the PFLAG kick-off is very simple,” Taylor said to the Blade in an email. “That is, to be neutral.
Neutrality is not to be interpreted as anything else but simply that — being neutral.“ Taylor explained that the decision to appear more neutral was not to single out one particular group. “This is an approach the City has and will take with any other event held in the City of Salisbury as we entertain more than 100 events a year from a variety of groups and causes.” Taylor concluded his statement with good wishes for PFLAG, the LGBTQ human rights organization that previously collaborated with the mayor on the flag raising and recently relocated within Salisbury. “I am glad PFLAG has a new location on Carroll St.
for its kick-off,” Taylor said. “The City of Salisbury wishes the event good luck!” Nicole Hollywood, legislative chair for PFLAG Salisbury, said the decision not to promote cultural events using “city assets,” which includes the city’s flagpoles and street lamps, could impact longstanding celebrations of cultural heritage in the city. “We simply got an email saying that ‘we’re evaluating the use of city assets for cultural events,’ and ‘we don’t feel it’s appropriate moving forward to hang flags that represent special interest groups,’” Hollywood told the Blade regarding the denied request for flying the flag. “We were disheartened and made a statement saying that the planned event, which has occurred for a number of years always on the same day in the same location, is temporarily postponed until we could find an alternative.” Hollywood continued, explaining that
