LGBTQ residents claim Muslim-majority Michigan city council ‘betrayed’ them with Pride flag ban

The city's LGBTQ citizens are outraged by the council's decision and have lambasted the city for not reciprocating support when their group reportedly vigorously campaigns for immigration rights in the US, according to the Washington Post.

The city of Hamtramck, which has a population of 28,000 people, and is known for its minority communities, became the first all-Muslim-led city in the United States last year when Muslim immigrant, Amer Ghalib, became Mayor. Hamtramck was predominately Polish before an influx of Muslim immigrants settled in the city within the past few years, the outlet reports.

Catrina Stackpoole, a former council member who identifies as LGBTQ, called the council's decision a "stab in the back."

"We welcomed you," Stackpoole said. "We created nonprofits to help feed, clothe, find housing. We did everything we could to make your transition here easier, and this is how you repay us, by stabbing us in the back?"

The unanimous decision to ban Pride flags on city property came during Pride month, which Stackpoole believes was calculated. However, Mayor Ghalib maintains that the LGBTQ community was not targeted and that the council banned all flags on city property with the exception of US, state, and city flags, as well as POW/MIA banners.

"We're not targeting anybody," Ghalib said when questioned about the vote. "We are trying to close the door for other groups that could be extremist or racist."

But the outrage didn't stop with Stackpoole, and Mayor Ghalib has been accused of lying.

Josh Hansknecht, a local middle school teacher and president of the Hamtramck Queer Alliance, is another resident that isn't buying Ghalib's remarks, and said: "The sole purpose was absolutely to go after the gay pride flag."

"The ban did not create the conflict, but it emboldened people. It expanded on that tension," he said.

According to the Washington Post, the Pride flag ban allegedly triggered a series of private property thefts in which Pride flags were stolen in the city.

Briggs, a lesbian resident, claims that she doesn't "feel comfortable to even hold hands with my girlfriend."

Mayor Ghalib said that no other residents in the community aside from its LGBTQ population have taken issue with the Pride flag ban. He maintains that the city "welcomes all."

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who identifies as a lesbian, said at a protest following the ban that the town has become "a national embarrassment."

"I ask the city of Hamtramck to use its voice to speak up for all its people, take down the wall you have now built that has made this proud city into a national embarrassment," she said. "Make no mistake, homophobia, transphobia are indeed forms of evil as much as Islamophobia is."

The Hamtramck city council's decision comes as Muslims across the United States and Canada have taken to the streets to mass protest the LGBTQ indoctrination happening within the public education system.