WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas — Two Williamson Justices of the Peace are requesting to fly the Pride flag and Prisoner of War flag outside of their county offices.
- Wilco Justices of the Peace request to fly Pride, POW flags
- Say they want to support marginalized communities
- Commissioners court will discuss issue next week
Employees of Williamson County Justice Court Precinct 4 came up with the idea to support the marginalized communities earlier this week.
"We started looking into it and discovered what the flag policy was for the county and that there was nothing specific about a third flag," Justice of the Peace Stacy Hackenberg said.
Hackenberg put in a request for commissioners court to discuss the matter in its meeting next week, specifically asking to fly the Pride Flag outside of her office in Taylor during the month of June and POW flag in November for Veterans Day.
"It's definitely something that people are interested in talking about," she added.
Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1, KT Musselman, is requesting to fly the flags too. He says flying the Pride Flag is a symbolic gesture, as one of the first openly gay judges in Williamson County.
"The more that we discussed it, we thought that we could have an incredibly inclusive opportunity to bring this forward," he said.
County Judge Bill Gravell put out a poll on his social media accounts asking for the public's opinion.
As of Friday, the Twitter numbers are overwhelming in favor of flying the flags.
On Facebook, the numbers are much closer. More than 20,000 people have responded to that poll.
Gravell released the following statement. "It’s important as an elected official to take in feedback on where our constituents stand on issues that arise in the county. There is an item on next week’s Commissioners Court meeting agenda that has been placed by two judges that asks permission to fly the Rainbow Pride flag outside their court buildings. I am using Twitter and Facebook to poll the public on this issue as this is a quick way to obtain thoughts and feedback from constituents. I look forward to a robust conversation on Tuesday at the Commissioners Court meeting about this issue."
Hackenberg says if the commissioners court doesn't approve the item on Tuesday, she will put the flags on display in her courtroom.