Hasbrouck Heights was right in voting not to raise the pride flag (Opinion)

It was definitely divisive. And the legal wrangling was intense. But Hasbrouck Heights, under pressure to raise the pride flag for Gay Pride Month alongside the United States flag, the New Jersey state flag, and the prisoners of war flag, voted the motion down, 4-2.

For the uninitiated, June is recognized as Gay Pride Month. The pride flag is a rainbow flag that represents the LGBTQ community.

I feel for people who felt they needed to fight this fight. I feel for people who want to have their communities respected and recognized. The problem is, flying the pride flag opens up a can of worms. It means that every protected group in the state might feel slighted that their flag representing their group isn’t flown, too.

And if you do a little research, you’ll find that there are thousands of groups with thousands of flags in New Jersey and country wide. There are more groups than you’d think who have a flag that’s important to them: Political flags, religious flags, cultural and ethnic flags.

Just a few I can name here are the thin blue line flag, the Black Lives Matter flag, Antifa and QAnon flags.

The American legion and Vietnam veterans both have a flag. So does the 4H club. There’s a Masonic flag. And the Boy Scouts of America have a flag. Who knew?

Plenty of upstanding and deserving American citizens belong to groups that deserve to be celebrated.

Do a quick Wikipedia search of ethnic flags and you’ll see there aren’t enough flagpoles in New Jersey to fly them all. Hasbrouck Heights had to do what it had to do and so this doesn’t turn into the war of the flags, let’s hope that other towns in New Jersey don’t get pressured by any protected groups to fly their flags.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco. Any opinions expressed are Judi's own.