West Hollywood May Return Rainbow Flag to City Hall

The city of West Hollywood is reconsidering its controversial decision to remove a rainbow flag, symbolizing LGBT rights, from City Hall.

Four of five city councilmembers said at a recent meeting that the city should reconsider a decision from last year to remove the flag, which was placed during Pride month in June and taken down earlier this month. The decision came after Councilmember John Duran, who's gay, said the flag may alienate some of WeHo's non-LGBT citizens. Nearly half the population of West Hollywood, a city of about 35,000 that's surrounded by Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, identifies as LGBT. The city's new policy declared that only official flags — those of the city, state, and nation — should fly at City Hall, which is located in the middle of "Boystown" on Santa Monica Boulevard.

But at the recent council meeting, and following a firestorm of criticism, officials seemed displeased with the move.

"When [the flag] was up, no one contacted me, but when it came down, they certainly did," Councilmember John D'Amico said, according to WeHoville. "The flag is very political, but we can use that."

The city, which already has rainbow crosswalks, is now considering changing the city logo to feature rainbow colors. The council will officially reconsider the flag policy next month or in March.