“A Florida homeowners association has ordered a gay couple to remove a small rainbow flag from their front yard, but the couple has no intention of taking it down,” reports NBC News. “Bob Plominski and Mike Ferrari of Oakland Park, Florida, were issued a citation on June 5 that told them to take the flag down by June 15 or pay a $50 daily fine. The couple put it up to celebrate Pride Month.”
“Plominski and Ferrari told NBC Miami they were confused by the notice because they have flown the pride flag before and posted political signs in the neighborhood without any problems. “‘I got upset,’ Plominski said. ‘We’ve done this before and it’s a simple showing of our pride to the community and it’s up for 30 days. We were in shock they were going to do that.'”
“Bob Brusseau, president of the Eastland Cove Homeowners Association, said the five-person board sent the couple a violation notice after one of the association’s members complained based on a rule that restricts residents to displaying only U.S. or military flags in the neighborhood.”
While it would be illegal, and a gross violation of First Amendment Rights for a municipality or state to tell a gay couple they couldn’t display a pride flag, the law is different when it comes to Homeowners Associations, which are private organizations that often have extensive and sometimes insanely detailed and particular bylaws regarding what homeowners can do on their properties. The interesting part here is that in this particular case, Republicans seem to have a perfect understanding of the difference between public and private entities, a distinction that they seem completely incapable of managing when it comes to Trump supporters posing Nazi slogans and symbols on social media sites.