Sleepy Hollow Trustees Divided On Flying The PRIDE Flag

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June 13, 2024

By Solace Church–

Sleepy Hollow, a village that generally prides itself on its ethnic and cultural diversity, found itself divided over a proposal to fly the PRIDE flag, symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, on village property during the month of June.

The debate over whether Sleepy Hollow should sanction display of the PRIDE flag was initially triggered by a May 25 letter to the board, signed by some 20 residents, proposing that flying the flag would let LGBTQ+ community residents know that they are welcome in the village. “At the end of the day,” said Ted Schillinger at the June 11 board meeting, “raising a sign that Americans welcome other Americans is the most American thing you can do.”

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Most of the other rivertowns, including Irvington and Hastings-on-Hudson, fly the six-color flag on village property during June, which is widely recognized as LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The comparison, argued Jennifer Osfield, “makes us look bad; it makes us look like we’re not inclusive.” Osfield was one of about 50 residents who turned up at last Tuesday’s board meeting. “It makes us look like we like Halloween better than we like Pride, and that’s not the town we want to be.”

The unusually large turnout at the meeting was in direct response to comments made at the June 4 work session by two board members who expressed reservations about approving adoption of the flag, as well as language in a letter sent by John Stiloski, a Briarcliff resident and Tarrytown business owner whose letter to Mayor Martin Rutyna read in part: “If you and the board feel one group, religion or nationality should be flown please be advised that I have a Polish flag, Catholic Church flag, Trump flag, a Don’t Tread on Me Marine flag, a white surrender flag and a Let’s Go, Brandon flag I’d love to fly on village flagpoles.”

The debate over the PRIDE flag packed the Sleepy Hollow trustee meeting room on June 11

Trustee James Husselbee, though he was not present at the June 4th work session, wrote to his colleagues saying that the village needed a more comprehensive policy on flag-flying in general and that the board should take its time deliberating on this before deciding. Trustee Tom Andruss seconded Husselbee’s suggestion and further argued that if the village chose to fly any flag, its proponents should pay the costs associated with purchasing and storing the flags and the labor costs of taking them up or down. Both men argued that there should be limits on which groups could qualify to display emblems.

Trustee Jared Rodriguez reminded the board that after a confederate flag was found in a village-owned DPW vehicle a few years back, the board adopted a policy that said that anyone wishing to display an emblem (such as a flag) for a cause, must first ask permission from their village department head. “We have a mechanism for people to propose,” Rodriguez said. “We have a process.”

In an effort to find consensus, Mayor Rutyna suggested that the village confine approval to groups recognized as National Heritage members, pointing out that Pride Month is recognized by Congress along with about a dozen other groups including African-Americans, Women, Asian Pacific Islanders and Latino Americans. Unable to reach a consensus at that work session, the board agreed to hold a public hearing at the June 11 meeting but not immediately vote on it.

In addition to the crowd that filled the trustee meeting room at the June 11 meeting, the board received at least 93 emails, 86 of which were in support of flying the PRIDE flag, compared with seven against.

Many who spoke said that they had chosen to live in Sleepy Hollow because of its diversity, and many expressed disappointment that the flag proposal has been met with such opposition.

The public comments were universally civil and heartfelt, including the one dissenting voice at the meeting. Lucy Tucker, a professed Catholic, who characterized the PRIDE flag as “an expression of a political religious agenda,” Tucker said, reading from a prepared statement. “It says to all Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims—and to most traditional people everywhere—that their understanding of marriage and family is wrong,” she said. “On public property, it proclaims that only one political religious attitude towards marriage and the family is legitimate.”

As civil as the public comments were, the ensuing exchange among board members grew heated afterTrustee Lauren Connell entered a motion to approve flying the PRIDE flag—a motion she had prepared just that afternoon. Mayor Rutyna quickly seconded her motion, which drew applause from the crowd but a sharp rebuke by Trustees Andruss and Husselbee who called the move “highly inappropriate,” noting that the mayor had only hours earlier assured each board member that there was no plan to vote that night.

The board, said Andruss, “has been shanghaied and, by the way, bullied. We have been bullied tonight. You know what? I actually feel hated. You all threatened us: ‘vote our way, or we’re going to get you,’” Andruss said. Rutyna assured the Board that there was no prior coordination regarding Connell’s motion, and that he had no intention of voting before the meeting began. He apologized and agreed, after an extended procedural debate, to table Connell’s motion until the board meets again in a special session on Friday, June 14, at 3:00 p.m.

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