Lawrence with Rainbow Flag – by Bob Stern, on Flag Day 2016

 Last Tuesday (June 14, 2016) was Flag Day, and that evening a Pride Flag appeared at Lawrence Circle, in a symbolic show of support for the victims of the horrific massacre at the Orlando, FL, Pulse nightclub, and the LGBT community.  Today’s Schenectady Gazette had a photo of the flag and Lawrence on its front page.  I am not sure exactly when, but by mid-morning today the Pride Flag was gone. Other then asking the question in the headline above, I will leave motives for others to speculate upon.

 . . . update (June 23, 2016): It appears that one person was responsible for the removal of the Pride Flag from its location on the bow of the Lawrence statue. That man brought the flag into Arthur’s Market, saying he took it down because it “offended” him. The flag has been returned to the neighbors who had hung it. Another pride-rainbow flag has been draped on the east side of the fence around Lawrence Circle over the past week. See the updates at the bottom of this posting at “suns along the Mohawk.”

I’m posting here at “snowmen at the gates” in the hope that our official, community, and neighborhood leaders will speak out for solidarity and love, not separation and hate. Oh, yes, and for good old American Freedom of Speech, too.

 Below is an email that I sent this afternoon to the Historic Stockade Yahoo! email group, cc-ing various media members. For more Flag Day photos from the Stockade, including pride flag images, see our sister weblog “suns along the Mohawk.”

From: David Giacalone <dgiacalone@nycap.rr.com>

Subject: pride in Lawrence Circle

Date: June 16, 2016 at 11:41:28 AM EDT

To: Historic Stockade <HistoricStockade@yahoogroups.com>

Cc:  Capital Region Media

You may have seen the photo of Lawrence with a Pride Flag on the front page of today’s Gazette. I just learned that someone other than the persons who put it there has already taken it down. I do not want to speculate here as to why the Pride Flag has been removed, but I want to make two points:

First, you do not have to by gay or otherwise part of the LGBT movement to be pleased to see the Pride flag in Lawrence Circle (and at the YWCA), in solidarity with the Orlando massacre victims, against hatred, and in support of human rights for all. So, although not a part of the LGBT community, I was proud to see that flag alongside Lawrence. In case you missed the flag at the Circle, the collage below captured the Pride flags that joined Old Glory on Flag Day in the Stockade.  (they are also posted at my Flag Day weblog post)

Second, Lawrence Circle is a public park, officially designated as a Neighborhood Park by the City of Schenectady. It belongs to no particular people or group, and free speech rights exist there, as on all public property. Those rights extend to any temporary display that does not vandalize the Circle or Lawrence’s statue (and is not within the very narrow legal category of pornographic). Even if you might think a display is tacky or you disagree with the sentiment, you have no right to remove a temporary display put up by others exercising their right of free speech. 

The second attachment shows the Public Park as it existed long before Lawrence. The third attachment shows that Lawrence was originally placed outside the park fence. [source: SCHS, and Don Rittner’s “Schenectady: New York’s First Historic District.”] That Circle is not a sacred spot and Lawrence is rightly respected and celebrated, but almost certainly would not want to be venerated.

thank you, 

David

at Cucumber Alley

.

.

.

p.s. The Huffington Post reprinted a powerful and telling piece from the Facebook page of Paul Rausnenbush (June 14, 2016), entitled “I’m Done Accommodating Religious Hatred Toward Queer Lives.” Amen.