Why The Haitian Flag Choice In Lake Value Seashore Feels Like Erasure

BY NAN Information Editor

Information Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Fri. July 18, 2025: Lake Value Seashore has lengthy flown the Haitian flag alongside the American and LGBTQIA+ flags—not simply as ornament, however as an emblem of deep-rooted cultural delight, particularly throughout Haitian Heritage Month every Might.

However that image was quietly stripped away on July 1, when the town fee voted 4–1 in opposition to elevating the Haitian flag this 12 months, WLRN reported, citing imprecise “First Modification issues.” For a lot of locally, it felt like greater than a coverage change. It felt like erasure.

The Haitian neighborhood makes up a vibrant, seen a part of Lake Value Seashore. Every spring, colleges host cultural occasions, college students put on conventional colours, and commissioners attend parades celebrating Haiti’s historical past of revolution and resilience. The flag was all the time greater than fabric—it was identification.

So why now?

Commissioner Anthony Segrich raised the problem, arguing that permitting one ethnic flag opens the door to probably offensive or politically charged flags—together with, in a jarring instance, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flag. The comparability outraged neighborhood leaders and educators, particularly amid rising fears over immigrant deportation crackdowns.

“If ICE needed to fly a flag, would you help that?” Segrich requested throughout the assembly. “There are members of the neighborhood who would.”

That hypothetical chilled Andrew Cavanagh, a Lake Value Excessive Faculty instructor who works intently with Haitian-American college students. “It looks like they’re distancing themselves from our Haitian inhabitants… It’s a bit scary proper now,” he advised WLRN.

The vote left many confused. Commissioner Sarah Malega initially opposed the measure, stating: “At a time proper now the place there’s division on this nation, I can’t flip my again on both a type of communities.” But she in the end joined the bulk, supporting Segrich’s concept of flying solely the U.S. and LGBTQIA+ flags as a city-sanctioned assertion of inclusion—whereas suggesting a brand new “Lake Value Seashore” flag may sooner or later exchange ethnic symbols.

Commissioner Christopher McVoy was the lone dissenting vote. “There isn’t a hurt in placing up flags from different components,” he argued, calling the vote pointless and hurtful.

The backlash isn’t about flag coverage alone. It’s about what this second represents—a rising rigidity in America’s sanctuary cities, the place native leaders are navigating cultural inclusion, political polarization, and nationwide immigration battles in actual time.

Lake Value Seashore is dwelling not simply to Haitians, but in addition Guatemalan and Finnish communities. But none of these teams have seen their flags raised often, both. So why is the Haitian flag – —one in all solely two flags apart from the U.S. to ever fly over metropolis corridor—now within the crosshairs?

The assembly’s agenda didn’t make the vote’s implications clear, and neighborhood members say they weren’t adequately knowledgeable. That lack of transparency has fueled mistrust.

There’s no query that Lake Value Seashore wants a transparent, inclusive flag coverage. However in a metropolis that calls itself a sanctuary, the removing of the Haitian flag—a robust image of freedom and diaspora energy—raises troubling questions on whose tradition is seen, and whose is quietly pushed apart.

With Haitian immigrants dealing with growing marginalization nationwide, this native determination feels all of the extra symbolic—and never in a great way.