A federal lawsuit filed Monday alleges the city of Hamtramck’s Pride flag ban violates free speech rights and numerous other state and federal laws.
The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Detroit was filed on behalf of former Hamtramck Human Relations Commission members Russ Gordon and Cathy Stackpoole. The Hamtramck residents were fired from the commission in July, a month after the all-Muslim city council unanimously approved a flag “neutrality” ordinance in July.
Although the ban also prohibits religious, ethnic, racial, and political flags, the impetus was the LGBTQ+ Pride flag, which many local Muslims complained was an affront to their religion.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Marc M. Susselman, argues the ban violates the First Amendment right to free speech and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
“It is unconstitutional for government to select what speech will be permitted, and what speech will be prohibited, based on the content or viewpoint of the message conveyed by the speech,” the lawsuit states.
Susselman argues that the ban is not neutral because it allows the display of the Prisoners of War flag and other countries’ flags.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn the flag ban and reinstate Gordon and Stackpoole.
In an act of defiance, Gordon and Stackpoole displayed a Pride flag on public property on Joseph Campau Avenue on July 9. Police removed the flag after a councilman complained.
Two days later, the city council unanimously approved a resolution removing Gordon and Stackpoole from the Human Relations Commission.
The lawsuit argues that Gordon and Stackpoole did nothing wrong when they displayed the Pride flag.
“In so doing, Gordon was not violating the law,” the lawsuit states. “An unconstitutional Resolution is itself a violation of law, and a citizen who violates an unconstitutional, and therefore unlawful, Resolution cannot be violating the law. Rather, the Councilmen who voted in favor of the unconstitutional Resolution violated the law by violating the Constitution.”
Since the ban, dozens of Pride flags on private property have been vandalized, and residents in the diverse city say they feel alienated and maligned by conservative Muslims who view homosexuality as a sin and peddle false narratives about children being indoctrinated in schools.
More than half of Hamtramck’s residents are believed to be Muslim. In January 2022, Hamtramck became the first city in the U.S. to have an all-Muslim city council. The mayor, Amer Ghalib, is also Muslim.
Vandals continue to destroy Pride flags in Hamtramck, and police can’t seem to catch anyone. Here’s clear video of a flag being vandalized over the weekend in Hamtramck. pic.twitter.com/HaBWzxpyLz
— Steve Neavling (@MCmuckraker) November 6, 2023
Tensions between conservative Muslims and progressive began to simmer in the summer of 2021, when then-Mayor Karen Majewski broke a 3-3 city council tie to fly a Pride flag outside of City Hall.
A backlash ensued as conservative Muslims began to complain, saying the flag was an affront to their religion. Ghalib, a health care worker and Muslim immigrant from Yemen, made the flag a campaign issue and handily defeated Majewski, a four-term mayor, in November 2021.
When the council voted to ban Pride flags in June, conservative Muslims clashed with LGBTQ+ residents and their allies, with some shouting homophobic slurs. Since then local Muslims have joined forces with conservative Republicans, pledging to create an alliance to oppose LGBTQ+ rights. The coalition is propelled by crackpot ideas that public schools are “grooming” and indoctrinating impressionable children.
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