Decorah City Council votes to let Pride flags fly until Friday

In a special meeting Monday night, the Decorah City Council voted to leave the Pride flags up to support the LGBTQ+ community until Friday. The vote was made in accordance with the City of Decorah Administrative Policy Number 20-1 which concerns flag displays in the downtown district. Decorah Mayor Lorraine Borowski is also set to issue a Mayoral Proclamation denouncing the hate crime that was perpetrated over the weekend. Ward 2 Council Member Emily Neal made clear during the special meeting that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss leaving the flags up to show support for those members of the community most affected by the hate crime. "My ask is that we consider, in light of what happened over the weekend, and in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community here in Decorah, that we leave the flags up until next Monday," Neal said. The issue was then raised that the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs is coming to Decorah on Friday and that it is also Parents' Weekend at Luther College, so the Norwegian Flags and Luther Flags are supposed to fly beginning on Friday. Through discussion, the council settled on taking the Pride flags down and putting up the Luther and Norwegian flags on Friday, which would allow for the show of solidarity and support and may have the added bonus of potentially reducing the workload of city staff while still honoring the prior flag commitments.