SF Castro's flag: Activists want more say on it CASTRO DISTRICT

Michael Petrelis stands below the rainbow flag that flies at Market and Castro streets in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, April 23, 2011. Petrelis is urging community leaders to fly the stars and stripes on Harvey Milk Day but is meeting resistance to his idea. less Michael Petrelis stands below the rainbow flag that flies at Market and Castro streets in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, April 23, 2011. Petrelis is urging community leaders to fly the stars and stripes on ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close SF Castro's flag: Activists want more say on it 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Nothing says San Francisco like a fight over Elizabeth Taylor, Harvey Milk and flying the American flag.

A loose band of community activists in the Castro district say they are tired of a powerful local merchants group controlling the gay rights rainbow flag that flies at Castro and Market streets.

The fight started last month, when a handful of Castro residents asked the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro to fly the flag at half-staff to honor Elizabeth Taylor, the Hollywood-star-and icon to gays who died in March.

The merchants group, which has maintained the flag since the late 1990s, declined that request, said Steve Adams, the group's president.

"We like to keep it up as much as possible," he said. "We have people who come from all over the world, and we want the flag flying at full staff - it is about pride."

The American flag

But now the activists, spearheaded by local blogger Michael Petrelis, have upped the rhetorical ante and asked that the American flag be flown on Harvey Milk Day May 22. They've also asked the city to weigh in because the pole is on public land.

Adams says he has not yet received Petrelis' request to fly the American flag, but if he does, it will be considered like all others. Officials at the city's Department of Public Works, which maintains the plaza where the flag flies, say they have no interest in getting involved.

Petrelis, 52, said he doubts that Adams will OK his request, adding that Milk, a Navy veteran, deserves to be honored as an "American hero."

"I mean, Liz Taylor - they wouldn't do it for Liz Taylor, and now they might not raise Old Glory," Petrelis said.

The elected board of the merchants group considers every one of the 10 to 20 requests they receive to lower the flag each month, Adams said. But they don't like to dilute the symbolic power of the flag by having it at half-staff.

Two exceptions

A new flag is unfurled every three months so the colors don't fade, he said. The only time the rainbow colors don't fly is the week before the Folsom Street Fair, when a leather flag is hoisted up the pole, and during the International Bear Rendezvous, when that gay group's brown and yellow flag flies.

The flag was been lowered to half-staff only five times in the past 10 years, Adams said. The board usually prefers to honor local gay icons, such as San Francisco Police Officer Jon Cook, the city' first gay officer to be killed in the line of duty, in 2002.

Even when Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, passed in 2008, the flag wasn't lowered to half-staff, he said. Instead, a black banner was flown below the rainbow colors.

"As someone who is out and has gone through a lot of bull- in my life, it means a lot to me," Adams said.

Who's in control?

Others say it isn't exactly fair that one merchants group gets to control such an important icon.

"The flag has become this international symbol, and because of that maybe there's more responsibility for a community process to control the flag," said Andrea Aiello, head of the Castro Community Benefit District.

Adams says that's fine, as long the other groups are ready to help pay the $5,000-per-year insurance bill and the maintenance costs, as his group has for years.

"My membership pays for that flag," he said. "If that's what they want, that's what they get - this is not a Steve Adams decision."