Bob Redell

Dublin City Council Votes to Raise Pride Flag

The city of Dublin agreed Tuesday night to fly the rainbow flag in honor of gay pride month.

Last month, the East Bay city voted down the idea, prompting more than 800 people to protest the decision, signing a petition demanding the city fly the flag.

"I think it's about time this country needs to come together with everybody," community member Renee Langon said.

The city council on Tuesday changed their mind, voting in favor of a flag pole policy that would allow flying a commemorative flag. It will be decided on a case by case basis, giving the pride flag a go.

Mayor David Haubert initially voted against flying the flag, saying he wanted a city policy established first.

The city of Dublin on Tuesday will decide whether to fly the pride flag in honor of gay pride month. Sharon Katsuda reports.

Haubert also addressed one of the homophobic remarks made by a member of the public at last month's contentious meeting in which people spoke for and against flying the flag.

"A lot of people are making a big deal about the fact that there was a little rebuke of the horrible things he mentioned at the meeting," Haubert said in a statement. "Many of these things were said by people who don't even live in Dublin, but came from neighboring cities. Dublin is a very diverse and inclusive community, and nobody should tell you otherwise."

However, on Tuesday, Haubert said, "I wish we had not really voted at the last meeting, but rather given this item a little more time to talk about it."

He added that he gave members of the comunity time to think and let the idea sink in for about two weeks.

"I called a lot of friends, we had a lot of dialogue and we learned a lot," he said. "So we ended up in the right place but again, we weren’t so far off in the meeting we had on May 21, we all agreed we needed to do something, we couldn’t figure out exactly what to do, and it ended up right."

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