Gay Pride flags OK’d in Miami Beach
MIAMI BEACH -- Commissioners in Miami Beach, Fla., have voted to let businesses fly rainbow-striped Gay Pride flags on poles during Gay Pride month in April.
"The problem is the businesses just went out and bought a flagpole and in an expression of their pride, put up the flag," City Commissioner Victor Diaz, noting any flag flown in a city right of way without a permit violates municipal code, told The Miami Herald.
Miami Beach is home to one of the country's largest gay communities and large numbers of the emblematic flag has been springing up in advance of gay pride month in April, the Herald reported Monday.
The commissioners voted to carve out a flag exemption by requiring that only an online form be submitted in lieu of the usual special permit for the month of April only.
"We're solving it in the short term with the temporary permit," Diaz said to the Herald. "But we need to find a more permanent solution."