HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-15-25 Public Comment - W. Maggard - Against adopting the Pride flag as a city of Bozeman flagFrom:Warden
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Against adopting the Pride flag as a city of Bozeman flag
Date:Monday, July 14, 2025 7:27:12 PM
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Dear city commissioners, I am writing this comment to encourage you to vote against the
adoption of the Pride flag as a city of Bozeman official flag. I have been a resident of Bozeman
and Belgrade for over 20 years, have lived here and am currently raising a family here. This
flag has no place on our government buildings, and to adopt it to that level would be to
elevate a certain political and ideological viewpoint as more dominant and important than
others. America, and with her Montana, is a mixing pot. This is only possible because one of
the core founding principles of our country is the separation of church and state. The Pride
flag is a symbol of an ideology, a set of ideas, and shares many similarities and commonalities
with organized religion. It has flags, rituals, statements of loyalty, signs of membership,
punishment and excommunication for dissenting members and opposing viewpoints. It has
gained adherents and proponents at an astonishing rate in the last decades. Pride is
represented in movies, TV shows, commercials, and advertising across the nation. Locally, the
flag is in our schools, public libraries, hospital, medical care centers, and businesses. The Life
insurance building in East Bozeman is lit up with a rainbow. The water tower in the Cannery
District has been lit up with a rainbow in the past. The Bozeman Public Library wraps light
poles with rainbows, and has stickers and signs in the library supporting this ideology. For
these reasons, anyone who says that Pride is "underrepresented" is terribly ignorant at best,
or dishonest and disingenuous at worst. There is no lack of representation of the LGBT
community. This move to push for the adoption of the flag is a blatant political move by
people who cannot stand to be disagreed with, who want to fly in the face of the laws that
were legally and democratically put in place by our legislators. It is a power move, plain and
simple, and I wonder at what the reaction would be to a proposal to adopt a Christian flag,
with a cross as an official flag. I can see the headlines in the Chronicle now, referring to
Handmaid's Tale.
Please, stand behind our legislators in the Capital, uphold the law, and stand strong for the
ideal this country was founded on. Separation of church and state. It applies to everyone, not
just Christians.
Sincerely, Warden Maggard