At the mid-way point of Pride Month, a Pride flag remains absent from Grace Lord Park after Boonton’s Republican mayor James Lynch vetoed a council-approved ordinance that would have authorized the display. This veto is the latest development in a years-long flag dispute in the Morris County town.
The Boonton Town Council approved Ordinance 11-26 by a 5-4 party-line vote on May 18, with Democrats in favor. The measure would have amended the town’s flag display policy to permit the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to fly at the park each June as adopted government speech. The mayor then vetoed the ordinance, saying he believes municipal flagpoles should be limited to U.S. and military flags.
Democrats held a 5-4 majority but lacked the two-thirds supermajority needed to override the veto, leaving the flag policy unchanged.
LGBTQ+ residents and business owners in Boonton reacted with frustration. Victoria Somers, a Main Street shop owner and member of the LGBTQ+ community, said the veto left people like her without recourse.
“So the other half of us that just wanted that singular flag in that singular place for the month of June, we’re just supposed to fade into the darkness I suppose,” she told ABC7 Eyewitness News.
“A veto may stop an ordinance,” said Nathan Lutz, a 54-year-old resident of Boonton, to Out in Jersey, “but it doesn’t erase the people who asked for it. LGBTQ residents are still here, our recognition and inclusion [are] still here.”
Council member Luisa Lopez, a Democrat, defended the ordinance’s intent, saying the flag represents both community and safety.
Council President Ben Weisman questioned the consistency of the mayor’s reasoning. “There was no argument when they were in the majority,” Weisman told ABC7.
At a town council meeting, one resident, arguing against the flag, distributed photos of a Nazi flag, which prompted council members to turn away as others in attendance booed.
This is not the first time Boonton’s flag policy has been a point of contention. The policy has shifted multiple times in recent years depending on which party held the council majority, with Democrats gaining control for the first time this year.
Lynch did not respond to a request for comment.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect that Lynch did not respond to a request for comment.
