By the edhat staff
The Lord Mayor of Copenhagen urged Solvang’s Mayor and city council to give their “full support” to the town’s LGBTQ+ community.
Denmark’s Sophie Hæstorp Andersen recently became aware of the Danish-inspired town’s decision not to hang banners in support Pride month, one council member’s bigoted comments towards the LGBTQ+ community, Santa Ynez High School painting over rainbow crosswalks over “community complaints,” and the two men charged with burning pride flags.
The Lord Mayor stated she was surprised and shocked to read of the above events. “This opposition to Pride does not reflect the genuine warmth and acceptance of Pride that can be seen across Denmark and especially in Copenhagen,” Hæstorp Andersen wrote in a letter published by The Independent.
Hæstorp Andersen stated that Copenhagen and Denmark have a proud tradition of acceptance and inclusion, and since the 1970s has held LGBTQ+ community events with Copenhagen Pride happening every year since 1996 and in 2021 hosted WorldPride.
“In the spirit of friendship between our cities, I urge you to give Santa Ynez Valley Pride and your local LGBTI+ community the full support or your City Council, in the same way that the Municipality of Copenhagen wholeheartedly supports Copenhagen Pride for the benefit of all Copenhageners, and to show the world that respect and acceptance are vital elements in a modern, welcoming society,” Hæstorp Andersen wrote.
Tyler Hayden of The Independent reported Lars Henriksen, political chairperson of Copenhagen Pride, will be sending two new pride flags to replace the ones that were burned.
“It’s a sad indictment of where things are heading when we need to offer assistance to friends in countries such as the U.S.A., where the trend of tolerance seems to be moving in the wrong direction,” Henriksen stated.
Read the full story at independent.com
What an absolute embarrassment! Shame on you, hateful “leaders” of Solvang.
2:04 – and because of the homophobic words of the city council member, yes. Yes, the City Council is bigoted against the LGBQT community. That’s how actions and words work. They have consequences.
Because the city wouldn’t put up rainbow flags around town and have a parade they’re “hateful” and “bigots”?
“This is the friendliest God d— town I’ve ever been in. Everybody is welcoming to everybody.” – Robert Clarke
It is totally fine you do not agree with the decision that Solvang has made regarding Gay/Pride flags, parades, rainbow street crossings. However, you need to accept their decision as it was theirs to make. Request put in….request denied. Very simple, in my opinion. By complaining non-stop does not help the case of those in the future who may put in a request for a Gay/Pride month in Solvang. Remember, tearing down others does not build anyone up….it just makes the complainers look like…..well, complainers who cannot accept decisions made by others. Hate the people of Solvang? Don’t go there. Maybe let this one go and head to places that you want to support. Some of us with progressive roots have learned to calm down and not make ourselves look silly, and approach these things logically/calmly and take out the negative emotions, which for some can be very hard to do….but give it a try!
Since when is our government ruled by a foreign leader? Beat it Lord Mayor
DOULIE – the sad part that you don’t recognize is this isn’t our “country’s business,” but then again…. our country is going backward as far as tolerance for those born differently than others.
That her letter bothers you, should be a learning moment for you.
CONSEVATIVE – ‘Ol Sophie is no leader, she is a social democrat with time on her hands to involve herself in another country’s business.
Your local government is ruled by Fox news tropes
You think that because the media politicians told you so. They told you so because they both benefit from a divided society. When will you stop believing everything they say?
VOR trying to become relevant in this conversation….-******
The hate of the Republican party is much similar to 30’s Germany with Hitler blaming the country’s problem’s on the Jews to foment power. The Republicans blame the country’s problems on transgender children, homosexuals, and people of other races. The Republican fear mongering has directly led to bullying, beating and murders of the marginalized segments of our country.
VOL – Read the words written in the articles. No politician “told” me that Pride flags were banned or that temporary rainbows on the street were painted over because of parent complaints or that kids stole and burned pride flags. The OVERT acts of bigotry are blatant. We don’t need our politicians to tell us when to get upset. Bud Light?
DOULIE – again, Solvang is not our “country’s business.” And why are you opposed to people calling out bigoted policies driven by hate an ignorance? THAT is what the “learning moment” should be….. for you.
SAC – My comment should be a “learning moment” for ‘ol Sophie. She should not involve herself in another country’s business.
Yes Doulie – Solvang’s bigotry is a hateful joke – and is now a joke internationally. Thanks in part to the shadow of the long shadow of the Reagan Ranch and the Young American Freedom Foundation.
Well, you’re pretty clearly not opposed to banning flags and painting over temporary rainbow crosswalks, so you do you. Feel free to pass on all those Bud Lights you’re boycotting as well!
I love it when the right is so stupid they defend their own bigotry as if it were normal.
Well, you’re pretty clearly not opposed to banning flags and painting over temporary rainbow crosswalks, so you do you. Feel free to pass on all those Bud Lights you’re boycotting as well!
SAC – You let me worry about myself and what I may or not be opposed to. ‘Ol Sophie’s the low level politician, not me. She has enough of her own people’s problems to deal with in Copenhagen than to worry about banners and the colors of a crosswalk half way across the world.
CONSERVATIVE – it’s not, no one ever said it was. Your favorite little Danish wannabees just schooled for being bigots. Funny, really.
Good! They SHOULD be shamed and ridiculed. Bigotry has no place in a modern world. Now do Santa Ynez High!
totally on-topic post GT. Thank you for your valuable contribution.
It came out in the Domain vs Fox news lawsuit that management at Fox news believes their viewers to be snowflakes that can be easily manipulated for profit. Division politics and culture wars have been great for Fox advertising as well as Repuglican fund raising efforts.
The bigoted hate monger principal from SYV HS resigned – good riddance. Here is a short, but incomplete list, of other thingsthat rethuglican cancel culture has tried to cancel based on their hateful drivel driven agenda.
Amazon
American Airlines
Amy Grant
Apple
AT&T
Bank of America
Banks which plan for climate change
Barney
BBC
The Beatles
Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)
Ben & Jerry’s
Black people
Books
Bud Light
Budweiser
Campbell’s Soup
Capitol Hill Club
Carhartt
Cisco
Citigroup
CNN
Coca-Cola
Colin Kaepernick
Common Core
Critical race theory
The Da Vinci Code
Delta Airlines
Disney
Dixie Chicks
Doom
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dungeons & Dragons
Ellen DeGeneres
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Evolution
Ford
France
French fries
Ghostbusters (2016)
The Golden Compass
Good Omens
Goodyear
Grubhub
The Guardian
Hallmark Channel
“Happy holidays”
Harley-Davidson
Harry Potter
Hershey
Hertz
History of racism
Home Depot
InterContinental Hotels
Islam
JPMorgan Chase
Judaism
Kathy Griffin
Kellogg’s
Keurig
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Levi Strauss & Co.
Libraries
Little Demon
Liz Cheney
M&Ms
Macy’s
Madonna
MLB
Megyn Kelly
Merck
Mormonism
Ms. Marvel
NASCAR
NBA
NBC
NFL
Netflix
The New York Times
Nike
Nordstrom’s
Oreo
Patagonia
Pepsi
Pokémon
Potato Head
Procter & Gamble
PBS
Rainbows
Republicans who voted to hold Trump accountable
Rock music
Samantha Bee
Same sex weddings
Sandi Patty
Sesame Street
Sex education
Scooby-Doo
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
The Simpsons
Star Wars
Starbucks
Stephen Colbert
Target
Teletubbies
Thor: Love and Thunder
Toy Story 4
Transgender people
United Airlines
UPS
ViacomCBS
Video games
Walmart
Wells Fargo
Wrangler Jeans
Yoga
Thanks for this incredible list! I’m going to use it, remember it, and VOTE BLUE!
Such tolerance GT! Your love and compassion for others shows no bounds!
Now do the “progressive left” the inventors of cancel culture.
“The inventors” now that is hilarious.
Here, I’ll list what the left tries to cancel:
Rapists
Racism
Bigotry
Homo/transphobia
Discrimination
Man, so anti-progressive to intolerant towards these awful things, huh? You must feel so persecuted. Imagine being denied a platorm to spout hate and ignorance. Must suck for you. Move to Texas or hey…… Solvang! Lad ikke døren ramme dig, hvor den gode herre splittede dig!
Rethuglicans have been trying to cancel the minimum wage ever since it was enacted in the 1930s;Republicans have done their best to cancel American’s health care; Republicans have fought to cancel unions ever since the 1920s;Republicans have worked hard to cancel educational opportunity for Americans;Conservatives have also succeeded, over the time from the 1890s when America first started having public schools to this day, in cancelling any semblance of honest Black history;Republicans have been working since 1980 to cancel a woman’s right to choose an abortion;Republicans have been trying to cancel the workplace, political, and social rights of women for a century; Republicans have been trying to cancel your right to clean air since the 1970s; Pretty much every Republican legislator alive today has spent most of their careers trying to cancel the right of LGBTQ Americans; Republicans are trying to get average Americans to cancel getting the COVID vaccine; , Republican appointees on the Supreme Court let Republican Secretaries of State cancel the voter registrations of over 20 million Americans in the last dozen years and let them reduce the number of voting machines and voting locations, particularly in Black, Hispanic and working-class neighborhoods, to cancel their right to quickly vote. Hell, they even tried to cancel American democracy itself on January 6th.
White religious conservatives invented cancel culture.
The right has been defending those schmucks from the unite the right rally – the ones who were “good people on both sides”, the ones that were chanting anti-semetic statements – now they are being hunted down by law enforcement and being charged with a felony – burning an object with the intent to intimidate. Like the far right people here that have been defending the burning of LGBTQ flags in order to intimidate.
Wow, an incredible amount of projection, double standards, and intolerance, and lack of self awareness all in one place!
“projection, double standards, and intolerance” – where? Explain.
Oh hahaha! You still think being anti-racist and anti-bigot is being “intolerant.” That’s so cool of you to love racists, bigots, homophobes, and the like. You’re super progressive to defend and support those garbage piles.
So you’re saying that flying flags and painting sidewalks is the key to acceptance? I think that’s a fantasy. I hear what you’re saying, but to me this is a lot like taking a couple ethics courses in med school, or maybe attempting to train an ignorant bigot at work with a 2 hour class on racial sensitivity. That’s not what works. I personally don’t care if Solvang paints the sidewalks or not, but apparently you and some others really do. I respect your opinion, but I don’t think that’s where acceptance comes from, not at all. It’s how we’re raised.
Good grief Basic. The point is the Council decided being gay and promoting the nationally recognized Pride Month is “too political” and all the other banners for all the other nationally recognized events and holidays are not. You’re getting too much into the weeds about acceptance and tolerance, etc. etc. and this Mayor/council is proving they are not accepting or tolerable of a group different than himself.
Basic, HOW is this what you get from the conversation?! I’m speechless.
“So you’re saying that flying flags and painting sidewalks is the key to acceptance?”
@SB”surfer” – are you trying g to say my comment at 11:13 offended you? I don’t get your comment at all.
Looks like part of the problem is you don’t get it and I hope by asking that means you’re attempting to understand. Stating that everyone has differences and all pretty much the same so we don’t need to fly flags for our identities is an ignorant statement. It would be nice if this was true, but there are laws on the books and a number of laws in motion that are set to restrict the rights of specific Americans. Being gay is not a “personal value,” it is someone’s identity and personhood that is historically and currently under attack. Voting for a particular person are party is not the same as being gay, “Trump supporters” are not under attack like LGBTQ people are, and suggesting as much is ignorant and offensive. I hope this clears it up for you, otherwise I suggest doing a little research and googling to better understand it.
1:15 doesn’t get a lot of things.
It’s important to understand that Robert Clarke, who lost an election to Solvang City Council in November, was appointed – not chosen by voters – to his new seat. He does not represent the majority of Solvang residents. Furthermore, to drum up support for his out-of-touch agenda he solicited input from a small group of citizens by inviting them to speak at the City Council meeting. It is doubtful that they would have shown up if he hadn’t reached out to them and asked them to contact his fellow council members. The views his supporters shared are not representative of the way most people think in Solvang. Notably, the same group has endorsed four out of five SYVUHSD board members. Take a look at the group’s website, Santa Ynez Valley Common Sense, to understand just how out of touch this loose organization of people really is. Robert Clarke needs to be removed from office when he is up for election later this year, as do the four school board members. Vote them out.
Painting signs on the street, including walkways, should be only traffic instruction. Hanging flags, placards, banners and so forth is a entirely different issue. Nearly anything not hate mongering or slander should be OK as long as it doesn’t obstruct traffic.
International embarrassments. Hanging onto 19th century outdated hatred for your fellow man like a baby clutches their blanket. Why not live in peace with your fellow men & women?
I live in a nice middle-class neighborhood my direct a neighbors are entirely different people. We have a gay couple. We have a Muslim couple. We have a family that has a child transgender changing and us. that’s on our side of the block across the street. We have two very right wing and two very left-wing. And guess what we all get along and we get along very well. We have barbecues kids play together. We don’t put signs in our yard so we don’t cram anything down anybody’s throat everybody just lives their life quietly on their own. Nobody hides anything, but nobody is disrespectful. It’s really very easy we don’t make anybody feel uncomfortable. everybody feels welcome
I think MEBK’s comment says it all.
A lot of us have had these same life experiences – we are all different and can easily coexist – we don’t need everyone to fly their own personal values as flags, bumper stickers, or crosswalks – as if they’re at war with others. That’s goes across the board, from Trump stickers to pride flags.
@ BASIC- That would mean “co-existing” and not creating divisiveness among the masses… which is how 95+% of us live… The American adage of “Don’t Tread on Me”. Everyone can live a life as they wish, just don’t force promotion of your lifestyle, be it religion, ideology or sexual orientation on others.
@Basic – voting for a politician/being part of a specific political party and being LGBTQ+ are not the same thing. Conflating the two is ignorant and offensive.
there are some seriously deranged and mean people on this forum. there are also some very enlightened, educated, civil, and kind people here as well. that’s is all i have to say. you know who you are and you know why you fall into either category.