The decision is a victory for Menendez, who said that he received a permit to install a temporary 12-foot flagpole with a 4×7 rainbow flag at the monument March 1 and that a new rainbow flag with an NPS emblem replaced it in June. Melissa Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, said this morning that Haaland was not involved in the final decision.
“This new flagpole will be permanently located front and center in the beautiful gardens inside Christopher Park,” Vietzke said in the letter.
In the letter, NPS Regional Director Gay Vietzke told Petrelis that a permanent flagpole would soon go up to complement an iron fence that surrounds the federally owned Christopher Park, which is included in the monument’s boundaries.
