The flag flaps continue in the Gate City.
Just days after refusing to allow the historic Pine Tree Flag to fly on the flag poles outside City Hall, Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess and his administration pulled down the New Hampshire state flag and replaced it with the “Progress Pride” flag on Monday.
Monday was also the 249th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Beth Scaer, the local resident who requested the opportunity to hoist the Pine Tree Flag, noted the city’s removal of the New Hampshire flag and took photos of the Pride banner. She also circled City Hall to confirm the state flag was not flying.
The New Hampshire state flag was removed from the pole on the right and replaced with the Progress Pride Flag on Monday, June 17, 2024
Emails to Donchess, the city’s “Risk Manager” Jennifer L. Deshaies who oversees the flag poles, and other Nashua city officials went unanswered Monday.
The Progress Pride flag is a variation of the better-known rainbow Pride flag representing LGBT rights. According to the group Human Rights Campaign, the Progress Pride Flag adds a white, pink, and light blue stripe to represent the transgender community, and black and brown stripes for communities of color.
Donchess rejected the Pine Tree Flag, with its historic roots in New Hampshire’s Revolutionary era past, claiming it is “a symbol of violence against local, state and national government.” A handful of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot waved the Pine Tree banner, but far more of the rioters carried the U.S. flag. Asked why the former is banned at Nashua City Hall and not the other, Donchess declined to respond.
Scaer asked the city to observe the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, noting that some Nashua residents participated in that historic fight with the British in 1775. Alderwoman-at-Large Gloria Timmons had a different suggestion for her constituent.
The Progress Pride Flag
“As Monday, June 17th is the 249th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, whereas June 19th is a National Holiday, where African Americans were enslaved for 246 years before emancipation and Jim Crow laws took place immediately after the abolishment of slavery. Will you be celebrating Juneteenth that is a National Holiday this Wednesday? Will you be joining us in correcting all the wrongs that Europeans did to African Americans, including those who fought at Bunker Hill, not to mention Native Americans?” Timmons asked in an email to Scaer.
A message attacking the Americans who fought in the Revolution at Bunker Hill was not what Scaer was hoping for. Timmons also told her that if she wanted to commemorate that battle, she should go to Boston to do it.
Two Republicans running in the Second Congressional District primary have spoken out about Nashua’s ban on the Pine Tree Flag while flying the Progress Pride banner.
“Once again, we see the liberals with their ‘good for me but not for thee’ selective policies expressing your freedom to them is based on whether you are standing on the left or right,” said former state Rep. Casey Crane.
Entrepreneur Vikram Mansharami said, “This drama over the flags in Nashua is more identity-driven political nonsense.”
