Bellingham visitors will see new banners downtown, part of the city’s ‘protected speech’

Visitors to downtown Bellingham soon will see new banners hanging from utility poles along Holly Street, and the Pride flag will fly at City Hall, part of the city’s support for local Pride Month celebrating LGBTQIA+ people.

Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood made that announcement at a City Council committee session Monday, June 27, and the full City Council voted 5-0 Monday to affirm that the display of flags on city property is protected government speech.

That vote was required because of a recent unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the plaintiff in Shurtleff v. Boston, where that city was sued because it refused to display a Christian flag on city property, said James Erb, assistant city attorney.

“In that case, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the city of Boston’s policy regarding its flagpoles outside of City Hall had inadvertently created a limited public forum, where members of the public could come and raise flags of their choice as an expression of their own speech, and that expression could not be interfered with by the city of Boston,” Erb told the council.

“That decision resulted in some communication from some community members to the mayor’s office asking questions about the city’s policy regarding the flagpoles” outside Bellingham City Hall, Erb said.

Erb said Monday’s council action grew out of a desire to “provide some clarity” about city policy and its flagpoles, which are not a public forum — even though City Hall grounds are often the site of protests and rallies on topics from women’s rights to homelessness to gun control.

“It is the city’s decision which flags will fly or not on the city’s flagpoles,” Erb said. “Nothing is changing by virtue of this resolution. We are simply affirming what has been a historical practice.”

Meanwhile, the city last week raised a commemorative Juneteenth flag to mark the new federal, state and city holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Similarly, the new Progress Pride banners that will be displayed downtown are protected government speech, Fleetwood said.

Those banners will hang downtown during July, when the Whatcom Pride parade and festival are scheduled, as part of an effort by the city and the Downtown Bellingham Partnership, said Bellingham spokeswoman Janice Keller.

About a dozen banners were purchased for approximately $2,500.

They were designed by Bradley Lockhart, who designed the Bellingham flag and the city logo, and they were printed locally, Keller told The Bellingham Herald.

Lockhart told The Herald that the banners incorporate the updated “Progress Pride” design, which uses the rainbow colors of the original Gay Pride flag, and adds a chevron field of stripes in black and brown and white, pink and light blue.

Black and brown honors people of color and those lost to HIV/AIDS, according to the Northwestern University Office of Equity.

White, pink and light blue are part of the Transgender Pride flag.