The City of Madison and Dane County are showing their solidarity with the LGBT community by flying a rainbow flag outside their headquarters for the rest of this week.
The move comes in response to the killing of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando over the weekend, and to conservative Christian evangelist Franklin Graham speaking at Capitol rally.
The flag went up outside the City County Building at about 11:45 Wednesday morning, fifteen minutes before the Graham rally began. It will fly at half-staff through Friday outside the building, which houses both City and County offices and council chambers on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
“I think it’s showing our solidarity with the LGBT community in Orlando and our own city,” said Madison Alder Shiva Bidar. “I think it sends a strong message to have it at an official government building to show where we stand as a community.”
Bidar said the idea came from a City employee who is a member of the LGBT community. After hearing from that employee,
Bidar called the offices of County Executive Joe Parisi and Mayor Paul Soglin, and then fellow alder Mark Clear on Tuesday evening.
“I’m Co-chair of City County Liason Committee, which runs the building, so it’s actually up to me,” Clear said. He called his co-chair of that committee, County Supervisor Paul Nelson, who gave him the green light. He then says he told Bidar, “You find me a flag and I’ll do the rest.”
Bidar found a flag to borrow at OutReach, Madison’s LGBT community center.
“Steve Starkey, the executive director of OutReach, was very responsive,” said Bidar. “It means something that the flag is from the LGBT center in our community.”
Clear picked up the flag Wednesday morning and it was up shortly thereafter.
“Sometimes the wheels of bureaucracy turn quickly,” Clear said.
Clear said he wanted to work quickly to get the flag up “in part to show pride and support for the LGBT community here and everywhere, especially in light of this rally that’s going on right now, that that is not what Madison is. We are an inclusive community and we won’t be bullied or intimidated by people with microphones or people with guns.”
Bidar said Soglin’s office did respond to her initial inquiry to express support of the flag.
