LCSD#1 Says Rainbow Flags Not Banned, Wyoming Equality Not Sure

Are rainbow flags banned in Laramie County School District #1?

That question appeared to be answered by a statement issued by the school district on Friday.

But the Executive Director of a group that lobbies for LGBTQ rights says the issue is "a gray area" at this point. Laramie County School District#1 issued a statement on Friday, which opened with the following sentence:

"LCSD #1 has not banned rainbow flags as reported by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on 4-19-2019. "

District spokeswoman Cindy Keen Reynders, contacted by Townsquare Media on Wednesday morning, referred to the statement in response to a question about the status of the flags in the district. When asked if that indeed means the flags, a symbol of LGBTQ rights, were not banned, Reynders said that understanding is correct.

You can read the entire statement from the district here.

The statement does clearly ban the display of Confederate flags and swastikas in the district.

But Wyoming Equality Executive Director Sara Burlingame said Wednesday morning that the rainbow flag issue is, in fact. "a gray area" at this point. She says one problem with the statement is that it contradicts a statement made by a teacher to members of the McCormick Junior High School Gay-Straight Alliance last week which indicated the flags were banned.

Burlingame also says a closer reading of the district statement also leaves some "wiggle room" for individual principals to ban the flags in various schools if they choose to do so.

You can hear the entire Wednesday morning interview of Burlingame by Townsquare Media's Doug Randall in the audio attached to this article.

The interview covered a number of topics related to tensions at McCormick, where antigay and racist flyers were posted a few weeks ago