Yes, You Can Fight City Hall -- 20th Anniversary of First Amendment Victory Against City of St. Augustine
Happy anniversary to Rev. Ruth Jensen, to her wife, Elisabeth Forbell, to their lawyer Karen Doering, the National Lesbian Rights Committee, and to our St. Augustine Pride Committee.
20 years ago, our Nation's Oldest City government lost another civil rights case.
20 years ago, our Nation's Oldest City government lost another civil rights case.
By the dawn's early light, early on the morning of June 8, 2025 Rainbow flags flew over our Bridge of Lions by federal court order.
Our City violated the rights of local LGBTQ+ people, who rightly won in Federal Court the equal First Amendment right to fly Rainbow flags for Gay Pride.
Our City violated the rights of local LGBTQ+ people, who rightly won in Federal Court the equal First Amendment right to fly Rainbow flags for Gay Pride.
The only group our Nation's Oldest City government ever turned down was the St. Augustine Pride Committee. Thrice City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS turned down the Committee in 2003, 2004 and 2005. In 2005, City Commissioners voted on the issue, upholding HARRISS, violating the First Amendment.
On June 7, 2005, United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. skewered the City's pretexts, ordering the flags to fly from June 8-13, 2005. On June 13, 2007, Commissioners GEORGE GARDNER (then-Mayor), DONALD CRICHLOW and ERROL JONES voted to ban all but government-flagflying on our Bridge of Lions (BOL).
Since disgraced ex-Mayor, JOE BOLES,, to his everlasting credit, voted twice against bigotry, once on May 23, 2005 and once again on June 13, 2005. Commissioner SUSAN BURK voted once against First Amendment violations and bigotry, missing the June 13, 2005 meeting.
Diversity and environmental protection will defeat bigotry, mendacity and environmental depredations. To those naysayers who say, "you can't fight City Hall," please see photo above.
Since disgraced ex-Mayor, JOE BOLES,, to his everlasting credit, voted twice against bigotry, once on May 23, 2005 and once again on June 13, 2005. Commissioner SUSAN BURK voted once against First Amendment violations and bigotry, missing the June 13, 2005 meeting.
Diversity and environmental protection will defeat bigotry, mendacity and environmental depredations. To those naysayers who say, "you can't fight City Hall," please see photo above.
One picture is worth 1000 words.
Honorable Henry Lee Adams, Jr.
United States District Court Judge in Rainbow Flags Case
TWENTY years ago today, on June 8, 2005, the Junne 7, 2005 order of our U.S. District Court Chief Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. took effect. He ordered Rainbow flags to fly on St. Augustine's historic Bridge of Lions from June 8-13, 2005 in Jensen v. City of St. Augustine, Florida.
Thanks to Plaintiffs, Ruth Jensen, her wife, Elizabeth Forbell, their attorney Karen Doeering et al, and to Jason Relph for thinking to ask.
Gays and Lesbians had asked for the flags in 2003 and 2004, risking their jobs (some were fired) and our ethically-impaired City Manager and City Commissioners did not even vote on the issue. Then I wrote a GLBT history of St. Augustine (11,000 years worth), including the contributions to our Nation's Oldest City of Fred Francis, Kenneth Worcester Dow, et al. and the first anti-Gay hate crime in North American history (1566, on orders of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, whose brother in law wrote down the murder of the Gay French translator of the Guale Indian language, dating the cacique or chief, because he was "a Sodomite and a Lutheran.")
The Gay Pride group attached a one page summary to the City permit application, which was ordered DENIED by City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS, the racist, sexist, misogynist homophobe who was the mentor to City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. and other City Hall denizens. The rest is history. Commissioners voted 3-2 to deny the application on May 23, 2005. Commissioners Boles and Burk voted correctly, while three other commissioners were wrong on the First Amendment.
It was a fun day in federal court twenty (2) years ago, on June 7, 2005. The Gay people (and supporters) sat on the right side of the courtroom, and the right side of history. The City's insurance defense lawyer was uptight and obviously uncomfortable with Gays.
Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. asked, "What's the Broward Yacht Company?" (A: "It's a yacht company, your Honor") and "What's historic about Flagler College other than that one of their buildings is old. (No coherent response).
After the argument, our side retired to a nearby Subway sandwich shop, where our lawyer received Judge Adams' order by E-mail.
The next morning, the dawn's early light brought the sight of 42 flags on our bridge and seven on our Bayfront. None of those flagpoles survive. HARRISS had seven removed without permission, and the new replacement Bridge still has no flagpoles yet.
On June 7, 2005, on the way back from Jacksonville with my friend David Thundershield Queen, we stopped at the Treaty Oak (below), which was a young tree when our First Amendment, Bill of Rights and Constitution were being written.
David Thundershield Queen is no longer with us, but our community, in David's spirit, is activated now, no longer afraid of corrupters and bullies like the sordid sort that once bossed and bullied Our Town. The Constitution lives in our hearts and in Our Town.
And I later got to meet the Marks Gray insurance defense lawyer, Susan Erdelyi, at the City of St. Augustine Beach, shook her hand, and quoted the case in support of further First Amendment victories.
Let the healing begin.
As LBJ said to a Joint Session of Congress after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"
It was a fun day in federal court twenty (2) years ago, on June 7, 2005. The Gay people (and supporters) sat on the right side of the courtroom, and the right side of history. The City's insurance defense lawyer was uptight and obviously uncomfortable with Gays.
Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. asked, "What's the Broward Yacht Company?" (A: "It's a yacht company, your Honor") and "What's historic about Flagler College other than that one of their buildings is old. (No coherent response).
After the argument, our side retired to a nearby Subway sandwich shop, where our lawyer received Judge Adams' order by E-mail.
The next morning, the dawn's early light brought the sight of 42 flags on our bridge and seven on our Bayfront. None of those flagpoles survive. HARRISS had seven removed without permission, and the new replacement Bridge still has no flagpoles yet.
On June 7, 2005, on the way back from Jacksonville with my friend David Thundershield Queen, we stopped at the Treaty Oak (below), which was a young tree when our First Amendment, Bill of Rights and Constitution were being written.
David Thundershield Queen is no longer with us, but our community, in David's spirit, is activated now, no longer afraid of corrupters and bullies like the sordid sort that once bossed and bullied Our Town. The Constitution lives in our hearts and in Our Town.
And I later got to meet the Marks Gray insurance defense lawyer, Susan Erdelyi, at the City of St. Augustine Beach, shook her hand, and quoted the case in support of further First Amendment victories.
Let the healing begin.
As LBJ said to a Joint Session of Congress after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"
On March 15, 2005, the late David Brian Wallace, our friend "Goober" from Texas and I attended former Reagan UNESCO Ambassador Alan Keyes' Nuremberg-style anti-Gay marriage hate rally, which County Commissioners allowed him to hold rent-free in our St. Johns County Convention Center at the World Golf Village. Inspired, I did the historical research and lawyer recruitment that helped St. Augustine's Gay Pride committee leaders to win a federal court order under the First Amendment requiring flying of Rainbow flags in honor of Gay Pride on our historic St. Augustine, Florida Bridge of Lions in 2005 (a First Amendment victory that was achieved by showing GLBTQ history, including the 1566 order of a Gay French interpreter of the Guale Indian language on orders of our City's founder, because the translator was a “Sodomite and a Lutheran” in an intimate relationship with the son of the cacique (chief).
Treaty Oak, Jacksonville, Florida
Treaty Oak, Jacksonville, Florida
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