Divided commission schedules formal discussion, potential vote for next week.
By Matt Standal MONTANA FREE PRESS
While the question of whether Bozeman should adopt the Pride flag in defiance of a newly passed state law wasn’t on the city commission’s agenda Tuesday night, dozens of members of the public transformed the meeting into an impromptu debate.
Divided and reportedly hesitant to join the controversy, the Bozeman commission had previously bumped a formal discussion on the topic from its schedule. However, with a crowd gathered in the commission chambers Tuesday, and before numerous residents spoke during the public comment period, both for and against the city adopting the Pride flag, Mayor Terry Cunningham announced that commissioners would take up the issue, and possibly vote, on July 15.
Members of Forward Montana, Queer Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley Sentinel sent out email blasts encouraging the public to show up Tuesday and force the debate.
Jason Baide, chair of Queer Bozeman, said his organization approached the commission in June and asked it to follow in the footsteps of city officials in Missoula and Butte who had voted to support the Pride flag and bypass the law passed during the recent legislative session.
“A Pride flag is a symbol that queer community is welcome here,” Baide told Montana Free Press. “It’s broader than sexual orientation. It ties to race and gender identity.”
Baide pointed out that the Pride flag had flown in front of city hall since 2022, until legislators outlawed it and other “politically charged symbols” on government property in House Bill 819, which Gov. Greg Gianforte signed in May.
“In this situation, it’s important to remember that we’re not fighting for the city to fly the flag, we’re asking them to fight against taking it down,” Baide said.
City Commissioner Emma Bode told MTFP that the Pride flag issue has divided Bozeman lawmakers. She said it was removed from the commission’s agenda on July 1 due to the mayor’s absence and postponed until Tuesday night. In the meantime, Bode said, several commissioners created an email chain debating whether the issue had become too divisive and controversial, and the commission tabled the scheduled discussion.
“I’m definitely frustrated about the change in agenda,” Bode said. “I think it’s important for our community to actually have the opportunity to have conversations and create a sense of unity.”
Bode, who is a member of the LGBTQ community, said that by dragging its feet on the issue, the commission is sending a message that it doesn’t fully understand that gay and transgender people are under attack in Montana’s political landscape.
“We have a state Legislature and a federal government attacking this community by systematically removing their rights to health care, access to public bathrooms, their right to read literature about sexual orientation, and the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s health care,” Bode said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, those who spoke in favor of the city adopting the Pride flag often told a similar story: They’d arrived in Bozeman, saw the Pride flag flying over city hall and felt a sense of acceptance and belonging.
Bozeman’s Jasper Gattiker said he feels the flag “signals safety” to the LGBTQ community and doesn’t exclude anyone in the city. “People are already leaving Bozeman because they think they’re not safe in Bozeman,” Gattiker told commissioners.
Those opposed to the flag’s adoption told the commission that the Pride flag only represents a fraction of the city’s residents and that promoting it over other flags wouldn’t be fair.
“This proposal goes against the very idea of civic neutrality,” Bozeman’s Conner Culver said. “Nobody wants someone else’s sexuality or political ideology shoved in their face.”
Commissioner Douglas Fischer told MTFP the city must proceed carefully to avoid alienating those who don’t feel they are represented by the Pride flag. He said adopting the flag as an official city symbol threatens to divide, rather than unite, Bozemanites.
“It’s clear to me from the public comment that we cannot bring people together over adopting the Pride flag as a symbol and flying it over city hall,” Fischer told MTFP, adding that the political discussion surrounding LGBTQ rights has become much more divisive in Montana during the past few years. The symbol of the flag has changed, he said.
“I think the Pride flag went from being open and inclusive to being something much more politicized,” Fischer said.
Fischer, who is a candidate for mayor in November, added that he’d prefer the commission put its energy into more concrete actions that would help underrepresented people in the city. Some of those actions, he said, are written into the city’s 80-page “Belonging in Bozeman Equity and Inclusion Plan,” which was adopted in 2023.
“These are tasks that we should go about doing that would make a meaningful difference rather than a community fight over what flag goes on the flagpole,” Fischer said.
Fischer said instead of debating the Pride flag, the commission could opt to redesign the current city flag to reflect a wide scale of topics important to the people of Bozeman, including “the outdoors, inclusivity and the environment,” and perhaps make it a contest open to the public, similar to the Sweet Pea Festival poster contest.
However, for Commissioner Bode, the question is about meeting the moment, not about art contests.
Bode said that while she agrees that perhaps there are other ways for the city to show support to its LGBTQ community, flying the Pride flag is a straightforward way to do so.
“My colleagues who pulled the item off the agenda have a lot of work to do to figure out what is a more unifying and less divisive item that actually creates a meaningful impact for the queer and trans community that is so under attack right now,” Bode said. “I have a hard time figuring out what other action we can do.”
Bode, who is up for re-election in November, said she understands not everyone in Bozeman feels the same way about the Pride flag as she does. She said she assumes that if Bozeman adopts the Pride flag as an official city flag, the Legislature will find a way to outlaw that as well.
“I think during every legislative session the Legislature takes away more and more local control,” Bode said.
MTFP reached out to several Republican lawmakers in Gallatin County who supported House Bill 819, but only one, Rep. Jedidiah Hinkle of Belgrade, responded.
If lawmakers were called for a special session in the coming months, Hinkle said he’d push to modify the bill to include language that further limits what flags a city can officially fly. Otherwise, he said, lawmakers would take that action during the next legislative session in 2027.
“The Bozeman City Commission has an opportunity to be professional and adopt a city flag that would unite all types of people in the city,” Hinkle wrote in an email. “To adopt an LGBT flag as a city flag is not only perverse, focusing on people’s sexuality, but also very divisive and inflammatory towards the majority of citizens of Bozeman. The City Commission should choose professionalism over sexual ideology.”
However, for Baide, who organized the rainbow-themed outpouring of support during Tuesday’s meeting, Hinkle’s remarks exemplify why his organization chooses to show up and advocate for the Pride flag.
“The status quo for a very long time is that we’re not welcome,” Baide said. “There’s a lot of people in our state and town that are fighting to say we’re not welcome here.”
