SCRANTON — A judge dismissed most of the defendants in Bob Bolus’ lawsuit to prevent Scranton from flying at City Hall the pride flag that symbolizes support for LGBTQ+ people and inclusivity.
Bolus last month sued the city, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, the five members of Scranton City Council — President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster — as well as Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, over the city flying the pride flag in recognition of the annual Pride Month of June.
The lawsuit aimed to get the pride flag removed from Scranton City Hall and barred from display at all government buildings in Lackawanna County.
In a ruling issued June 30, Lackawanna County Judge Frank Ruggiero dismissed as defendants the five council members and Gaughan. The judge did not dismiss the city and mayor as defendants, so the case proceeds against them.
On June 26, Bolus sought an emergency petition to get the flag taken down because the month was nearly over, but Ruggiero’s ruling coming on the last day of June also dismissed Bolus’ request for an emergent hearing.
The flag flap arose last month, after the city started on June 1 flying a rainbow-motif pride flag on a flagpole at the Municipal Building at 340 N. Washington Ave. for the annual commemoration of Pride Month.
Bolus initially filed a lawsuit June 6 on a pro-se basis, meaning representing himself without an attorney, in a legal attempt to compel the removal of the pride flag from City Hall, as well as having it barred from display there and at all government buildings in the county.
Also on June 6, Lackawanna County Judge Terrence Nealon dismissed Bolus’ lawsuit on various procedural errors, including that he did not properly file or serve the action or name defendants. Nealon dismissed the case “without prejudice,” meaning Bolus could try to do it again properly.
On June 9, Bolus refiled the lawsuit, now naming as defendants the city and the elected officials, all of whom are Democrats. Bolus is a Republican.
The filing and refiling of the lawsuit came amid controversy aired at recent city council meetings. On June 10, Smurl apologized for not stopping derogatory remarks made during public comment at the June 3 weekly council meeting. The apology was a response to comments by Bolus made June 3 opposing having the rainbow flag displayed at City Hall, as well as other remarks that Bolus directed at a pro-LGBTQ+ resident, Angela Ramone. Residents also came out to council’s June 10 meeting to express support for LGBTQ+ people and condemn hate speech, while Bolus said, “I make no excuse for last week,” according to an Electric City Television simulcast and video of the weekly meeting posted online.
On June 27, the city and mayor, represented by attorney Sean McDonough, filed objections to the lawsuit seeking its dismissal on several grounds, including:
Bolus’ citation of flags allowed on county buildings is misplaced here, in that the pride flag in question is flying at a municipal building.
The “government speech doctrine” allows the city to display the pride flag and “accordingly the petitioner’s remedy is not injunctive relief, it is the ballot box”; and barring or ordering the flag removed “would be muzzling the city’s prerogative to support Pride Month.”
While Bolus views the pride flag as a symbol of a lifestyle “abhorrent to a significant number of people,” the message of the flag is “in the eye of the beholder. Flags have great symbolic potential and can hold multiple meanings at the same time — meanings that can shift over time.”
Bolus can express his own views, and his private speech “is not being inhibited by the city’s decision to display the Pride Flag, but the city’s expressive rights would be diminished were this court to order the city to remove the flag against its wishes.”
Ruggiero will hear oral arguments in the lawsuit on Aug. 12.