Maryland County Officials Replace POW/MIA Flag at Veteran’s Park with Rainbow LGBTQ Pride Flag
Richard Moorhead
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Some Montgomery County, Maryland veterans and community members were surprised to find that county officials replaced a prisoners of war/missing-in-action commemorative flag in a veteran’s park with an LGBTQ+ pride flag.
County officials apparently intended to celebrate pride month by raising the flag, paying no mind to the presence of the missing-in-action flag.
The flag was hoisted over an area of the county municipal offices designated as Veteran’s Memorial Plaza. The suitably located POW/MIA flag had to be removed to make room for its implementation.
One Vietnam veteran, John Williams, expressed his disappointment to see the memorial for missing American military personnel converted into an LGBT pride display.
“I wasn’t happy about it… The park there is supposed to be a veteran’s park. People died- their names are there, now they take down the flag and put up another one.”
Local officials appear to be backtracking now that the move to remove the veteran’s flag has been met with rejection from the community. The flag was restored to its previous place soon after its removal.
A county official, Evan Glass, stated that an additional ringlet will be added to the flagpole to allow the display of two flags, making it appear as it Montgomery County officials are still unwilling to allow the POW/MIA flag to fly alone on its own flagpole.
When asked if he had any regrets as to the removal of the POW/MIA flag, he dodged the question, merely phrasing the issue as a mere procedural gaff caused by the absence of two ringlets on the pole.
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