California city says Pride banners aren’t ‘on brand.’ Danes would likely disagree | Opinion

The Danish-American community of Solvang, located in the heart of Santa Barbara County’s wine country, is famous for pastries, windmills and a Little Mermaid statue like the one in Copenhagen.

Officials work hard to maintain that Danish image, which is one reason the City Council voted 3-2 to deny a request to display rainbow banners and paint rainbow hues on crosswalks during all of June, which is Pride Month.

”It’s the first rule of branding to know who you are and to unwaveringly stick to it. You don’t confuse. You don’t divide. You don’t alienate visitors or potential visitors by suddenly waging a ‘woke’ campaign,” fifth-generation Solvang resident Jessie Condit Bengoa told the council.

Another speaker warned that granting permission for a Pride display would open the doors to a “nonsensical free-for-all to be exploited by everyone forever.”

What, exactly, are these Solvang citizens afraid of?

That the NAACP may want to put up banners on Martin Luther King Day?

Or the AAUW might propose a public art display for Women’s History Month?

Or — even worse — there could be a request to paint crosswalks green for St. Patrick’s Day? What would that do to the city’s Danish image? All because the city opened the door to such “nonsense” by allowing a Pride Month display.

Denmark leads in LGBTQ+ rights

Ironically, Pride messaging would be very much in keeping with Solvang’s Danish brand.

Denmark has been a leader in LGBTQ+ rights — it was the first nation to legalize civil unions for gay couples — and Copenhagen hosts a huge Pride festival and parade every year.

“The entire town is decked out in glitter, rainbow flags fly from every flagpole, and the City Hall Square is even renamed Pride Square,” according to a travel article on Queer in the World’s website.

Yet Solvang can’t allow some tastefully designed streetlight banners proclaiming “all welcome” because it might alienate tourists?

That’s depressing.

In this era when LGBTQ+ rights are in jeopardy throughout much of the U.S. — drag shows are being demonized as “inherently predatory; “gay” books banned from school libraries; laws written to protect transgender youths ignored by school boards — it would be especially powerful for communities small and large to step up and support Pride Month.

‘I’m gonna get called a bigot tomorrow’

The City Council based its denial on a city policy that requires banners to promote tourism — and expressly forbids those with a “political or religious” purpose.

“I’m gonna get called a bigot tomorrow,” said Councilman Robert Clarke, who voted to deny the request. “I’ve been called a bigot before. I don’t care.”

He may not care what he’s called, but denying this request is not a good look for the city he represents. That’s a shame, because an entire city should not be judged by the actions of a few individuals.

And while it’s that some visitors may be turned off by Pride displays, we suspect far more would be offended by the city’s refusal to take a stand for tolerance and diversity.

Yet opponents of the project seemed oblivious to the possibility of a backlash.

Nor were they willing to acknowledge that homophobia exists in their community — even though there was a well-documented incident last year of the burning of a Pride Flag stolen from a church in the Santa Ynez Valley.

At the council meeting, audience members brought up other examples of discrimination; one man said that since he’s moved to Solvang, he’s been called a homophobic slur more times than he could count.

The council majority was skeptical.

“This city is pretty much accepting of the people, in my opinion, in my experience around this town,” the mayor said. “I haven’t seen the prejudice that seems to be being expressed.”

Nothing like a straight white man turning to his own authoritative experience on bigotry to justify whether or not the city is sufficiently inclusive.

Organizers seek a compromise

If the city were truly accepting, its leaders would have at least tried to find a compromise.

A month is too long for banners to be up? How about two weeks?

Painted crosswalks might scare horses pulling the trolley through the city? Then paint them on streets that aren’t on the trolley route.

The banners don’t conform to the city policy? Then revise that button-downed policy, which appears to be all about catering to tourists, rather than expressing the community’s values and vision.

Matt Cavalli, executive director of The Rainbow House — the nonprofit organization that hopes to sponsor the Pride display — said his organization is willing to make such changes. In fact, it’s drafting an amended application that takes the council’s comments into consideration.

Cavalli told The Tribune the city of Solvang has been mostly supportive of Pride.

It did allow a Pride Parade to take place last year, after sponsors assured Councilman Clarke there would be no naked participants.

The council’s denial of the Pride banners and sidewalks — which Rainbow House had planned to pay for — left him and other supporters “truly in a state of shock,” Cavalli said.

“We don’t feel seen or heard,” he told us. “They (the council) forget about the locals who live here.”

There’s a way to remedy that.

Instead of letting the denial stand — thereby elevating this episode into yet another battle in the Culture Wars — city officials could meet with the applicants to find a path acceptable to both sides.

That, too, is the Danish way.