Nyack, June 28 ‘€“ Nyack will create new rules limiting which flags can fly above Village Hall at their next public meeting. The village trustees will vote on a new policy to reserve this honor for only the American and POW/MIA flags when they next meet on July 8.
The Gay Pride flag flew for 17 days over Village Hall after Nyack Mayor Richard Kavesh declared June Gay Pride Month last month. Two other groups requested equal treatment and asked that their flags be hoisted above Village Hall to fly below the U.S. and POW/MIA flags.
One of the requests, from a local Boy Scout Troop was subsequently withdrawn. The Village Board voted to accommodate a second request, from a Rockland County group called ‘€œRespect Life,’€ by flying their flag for the same number of days as the Gay Pride flag had been flown. The request was made by Kevin Doyle, a South Nyack resident and a lawyer with Feerick Lynch MacCartney in South Nyack.
‘€œIf we had rejected this request we would have been sued in Federal Court and we would have lost,’€ said Kavesh. ‘€œWe had no choice but to honor this request for equal protection under the law,’€ he said.
At the May 6 Village Board meeting, Kavesh made a motion proclaiming June 2010 as Gay Pride month in the Village of Nyack which was approved by the trustees. At the May 6 meeting the mayor also proposed flying the Gay Pride flag at Veteran’s Memorial Park during Gay Pride month.
See Also: Nyack Flies Flags of Freedom, 6/6/2010, Journal News 7/5/2010
