County Official Warns LGBT Pride Flag Honoring Terror Victims May Create Hostile Work Environment

A Florida County Commissioner Says an Anonymous Employee Complaint Led to His Questioning if Flag Should Be Flying

Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White is concerned that an LGBT pride flag, raised this week to honor the 49 victims of a hate crime mass shooting terror attack that targeted the LGBT community, might be creating a hostile work environment for Christians.

White, a Republican, claims he received an anonymous complaint from a county employee about the Pride flag flying outside the Hillsborough County government center. In an email exchange obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, White writes that the anonymous employee, “because of her strong Christian beliefs,” said the flag flying is making it “nearly unbearable” for her to walk by, and is creating a “hostile work environment.”

First elected to the County Commission in 2014, White, the Commission’s website states, in 2015 was “elected by the Board to serve in the leadership position of Chaplain.”

Commissioner White, in an email sent to the county’s human relations director, himself calls the LGBT rainbow flag a “divisive, politically-charged symbol,” and requested that the HR director investigate to see if the county could somehow be held liable.

He also attacked the County Administrator for allowing the Pride flag to be flown.

“It is still – in my view – unconscionable that the county administrator didn’t express to the board that this divisive symbol might create an uncomfortable workplace environment for many of his employees,” White’s email reads.

It’s unclear why the anonymous employee would have contacted White and not the HR Director.

Earlier this year, “Hillsborough County Commissioners signed a proclamation recognizing March 28 as Tampa Pride day in the county,” Watermark Online reported. “That is, all but one commissioner stood in solidarity with the LGBT community.” That lone standout was Commissioner White.

And last year, Commissioner White greatly opposed even holding a debate over whether or not to remove the Confederate flag flying outside the county government building after a madman massacred nine Black church members in Charleston. 

In 2014, Commissioner White “publicly opposed expanding the county’s human rights ordinance to protect LGBTs from workplace discrimination,” as BPI Campus.com reports.

“I don’t think that anyone should be mistreated or have action taken against them at work for non-work-related factors,” White said at the time. “How would an ordinance on an issue that is intensely private be enforced? The question of one’s sexual preference is one that simply shouldn’t be asked. I would vote against the ordinance.”

BPI Campus points to White’s official Facebook page, questioning just how much White believes family lives should be kept “intensely private.” 

 

Images:
Pride flag by Kellie Parker via Flickr and a CC license
Commissioner White via Facebook