Federal Appeals Court Upholds Hamtramck's Ban On Pride Flags On City Property

Michigan Advance

August 25, 2026

A federal appellate court has upheld a decision allowing Hamtramck to ban Pride flags on city-owned property.

The ruling, issued Aug. 21 by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, affirmed the Sept. 2025 dismissal by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan of a challenge to Hamtramck’s 2023 ban on flying Pride and other group flags on city-owned flagpoles.

The court held that even assuming the poles had previously been a forum for private speech, the city is permitted to change the purpose of that forum and restrict the poles to specified flags, making the display government speech.

The challenge to the city’s decision was filed by two former city officials, Russ Gordon and Cathy Stackpoole, who previously served on the Hamtramck Human Relations Commission. In July 2023, they raised a Pride flag in defiance of a recently passed city council resolution limiting flags on city property to the American flag, the Michigan flag and flags representing the native countries of immigrant residents.

The Pride flag was removed the same day and Gordon and Stackpoole raised it, prompting protests from residents and elected officials alike, including Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is gay. Gordon and Stackpoole subsequently filed their lawsuit, alleging the action was unconstitutional and violated the commissioners’ freedom of speech, several months later.

The resolution to ban the Pride flag was made after Hamtramck residents elected an all-Muslim city council in November 2021, becoming the first city in the U.S. to do so.

Although the ban the council subsequently passed also prohibited religious, ethnic, racial and political flags, the target of the effort was the LGBTQ+ Pride flag, which many local Muslims said was against their religious beliefs. Among them was former Mayor Amer Ghalib, who campaigned on the issue when he was elected in 2021.

Ghalib, a supporter of President Donald Trump, was subsequently nominated to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, an effort that stalled after past statements he had made about boycotting Israel came to light during his confirmation hearing.

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