ASUW Senate Resolution #2539 “ASUW Support for LGBTQIAA+ Pride Flag Flown in Prexy’s Pasture for the month of June,” passed 18-7 during Tuesday night’s meeting.
After being tabled indefinitely by Student Outreach and Policy (SOP) in February, the resolution was dispensed for a second reading on Tuesday.
“They were always going to eventually get back to it,” Tyler Wolfgang, ASUW Vice President, said. “It was just a matter of time. It makes sense that it came up again before the end of this year.”
The edits to the resolution include taking US flag code into consideration and being open to pursue another location for the flag if need be.
While the resolution passed not everyone in attendance agreed with the decision.
“This resolution is being rammed down the throat of students that don’t want this resolution passed,” UW student Isacc Roque said. “We know that this has been a quite divisive issue.”
Roque said he sees the American flag as inclusive enough and will continue to speak out against the resolution.
“The American flag is all inclusive, to say the American flag is not supporting the LGBTQ community is wrong,” Roque said. “I will continue to speak out against this and get students to advocate against this resolution. It’s a spit in the face to say the American flag is not a strong enough symbol to represent the LGBTQ community.”
Debate continued among the senators after Roque’s statements.
“ASUW should not pride itself on symbolic gestures,” Senator Courtney Thomson-Lichty said. “I fear that passing this bill will be celebrated as a real, tangible accomplishment. We shouldn’t be able to pat ourselves on the back while the LGBTQ students on this campus suffer from more pressing issues. The risk is too high for not so much reward.”
“I think that this is a step in the right direction,” Senator Daniel Kerbs said. “People fly all sorts of extra flags all the time. It’s to highlight certain things, this resolution will open the door to that and to open the conversation.”
The representative from the United Multicultural Center encouraged the senators to vote yes.
“We think this is a great idea to fly [the flag] on the biggest flag pole,” she said. “I urge you to vote yes for this. It’s a huge win for students.”
After the vote, reactions were mixed..
“I’m just disappointed that the senate knew there’s opposition, and that they didn’t publish their agenda sooner and they didn’t reach out to myself,” Roque said. “Getting this at the last minute was not something I agree with.”
Others said it was a win for the LGBTQ community.
“I think it was a good statement of solidarity,” Senator Tyler Julian said. “I think this is a great opportunity for students who identify with the LGBTQ community to say we are here. This opens other student groups as well to have that opportunity of solidarity.”
Roque said he sees himself challenging the passing of the resolution in the future.
“It is something we should look at as students to challenge our ASUW, especially when they should be representing all the views of the students,” Roque said. “Tonight, is just a gross example that the student constituency voice is not heard.”
Wolfgang is looking towards the future and what else ASUW can do for the LGBTQ community.
“I’m looking towards what we need to do next,” he said. “I think the comments in debate were amazing; we shouldn’t be giving ourselves a pat on the back but we should take this as some movement and keep on moving, to make more action.”
It is unclear if the pride flag will be flown this June.
“We’ll see how many obstacles we’ll have to go through to get it up this June,” Wolfgang said.
