For the first time ever, a rainbow pride flag flew outside a Maryland county's executive office building, but the flag it replaced had people raising objections.
Montgomery County Council member Evan Glass, the council's first LGBTQ member, helped celebrate the raising of the pride flag Monday morning at Veterans Memorial Plaza in Rockville.
But Vietnam veteran John “Bill” Williams said he’s upset the flag that honored soldiers still missing was taken down.
“When I was in Vietnam, I was there six days before two guys were missing in action, and they still haven’t found their bodies,” Williams said.
The POW/MIA flag was replaced by the LGBTQ pride flag for the month of June, pride month.
“I wasn’t happy about it at all because the park is supposed to be a veterans park,” Williams said. “People died. Now they took it down and put another flag up.”
“The flag post was only able to accommodate one flag, and when we learned of that, we are quickly, the county government, is quickly changing it,” Glass said. “So we’re adding more ringlets so that by tomorrow morning both flags will be raised.”
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“If they want to put the other flag underneath, they could put it underneath, but the POW flag should be flying there,” Williams said.
The POW/MIA flag was put up again after the public outcry on Tuesday, and both flags are now back up, County Executive Mark Elrich said.
The pride flag will fly throughout the month. The POW/MIA flag will fly permanently.
