Northport mayor announces compromise in split over pride flags, vet tributes

The Village of Northport will take down half the pride flags at Northport Village Park while also removing half the veteran memorial banners at the park in a compromise, Mayor Donna Koch announced Tuesday night at a packed village board meeting.

With about 90 people in attendance, many of them wearing pride shirts with LGBTQ-supporting messages, Koch, reading from a statement, said she made the decision after discussing the issue with other board members.

Last week, Koch ordered that the pride flags be removed from lampposts in Northport Village Park. The flags, an American Legion commander had complained, were on posts that also carried military portraits as part of the legion's "Hometown Heroes" series.

The mayor's decision sparked condemnation from the LGBTQ+ community and allies as Pride Month festivities ramped up. The flags were removed and later placed on village lampposts that did not have the veterans' banners.

At Tuesday night's meeting, Koch, reading from the statement, said: "I take full responsibility for the decision I made on Friday. I did not make it lightly, as always as Mayor I make decisions in what I believe to be in the best interest of the village. When one agrees with both sides as I do, it is a difficult position to mediate."

The mayor also announced six locations in the village where pride flags would or would not be allowed.

For safety reasons, the flags will not be permitted at six lampposts on the village dock, two lampposts in front of Village Hall, and six lampposts in the parking lot at the Northport Historical Society and Museum on Main Street. However, they would be allowed to be posted on four lampposts in the Village Park parking lot, one lamppost in the center of Cow Harbor Park's parking lot, and seven lampposts in Cow Harbor Park.

Jeff Cusick, who sits on the board of directors for Northport Pridefest, criticized the village board at the meeting for what he said was the relocation of pride flags at certain areas in a way that made it look like the flags were hidden.

"We are community members. We are not second-class citizens. We will not be hidden. We are here to be seen and respected," Cusick said.

Maureen McKenna, of the Northport American Legion, which led the effort to remove the pride flags, said at the meeting that the placement of veterans banners was about honoring military service members. Their sacrifice, she added, "deserves recognition every day."

"This is not about denying anyone’s rights to protect themselves," McKenna said.

Koch had said she received a letter from the Northport American Legion's commander, William McKenna on June 9 urging the village to separate or relocate the pride flags away from the banners. McKenna wrote that the Legion had received "numerous" complaints from those who were "deeply troubled by the current placement of the Pride flag above banners honoring those who served our nation. "

Shelby LaChance, a village resident and military veteran who attended the meeting, addressed the board during the hearing, saying she has a wife, and described fighting for change while overseas.

“The American Legion doesn’t speak for all of us veterans,” LaChance said.

Rachel Friedman, of East Northport, told Newsday after the meeting she wants to make sure that whatever policy the village takes in the future on the matter is inclusive.

"Historically, we know that there have been regulations and policies put in place which are not put in place, which are not inclusive, and which are discriminatory," Friedman said. "So I just don't want him to say, 'Look, we have a policy now', and it's not in everyone's best interest and it's not inclusive of everybody."

Newsday's Nicholas Grasso and Amit Ben-Bassat contributed to this story.