Rainbow Rumble

The brightly colored bumper stickers were meant to spread a message of unity, with the words "We are Traverse City" and human figures on a rainbow background.

Instead, their short presence has revealed a deep divide in this resort town that would rather be known for its golf courses and Lake Michigan beaches.

When the rainbow design was revealed in December with plans to paste it on police cars, fire trucks and other city vehicles, gay rights groups quickly praised the city. But critics were in an uproar, saying the rainbow is a symbol of gay rights.

Rather than continue to fight, the city commission on Thursday voted to sell the remaining stickers to a local advocacy group and wash their hands of what one commissioner labeled a "nightmare."

"The situation has gone awry," commissioner Jim Tompkins declared Thursday.

City offices were deluged by angry letters after launching the rainbow sticker, and the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group, said the city was endorsing homosexuality. Within a month, the city manager had ordered the stickers removed from city vehicles.

The city will now recoup about half the $1,800 it cost to print the stickers. The group buying the stickers, Hate-Free TC, plans to make them available to the public.

Gay rights advocates say the stickers are only the most visible element of a larger clash over homosexuality in Traverse City, a resort town of 15,000 about 250 miles northwest of Detroit.

"The sticker didn't cause any division," said Bryan Siddall, 21, who is gay. "It uncovered it."

The group Traverse City Citizens Voting Yes for Equal Rights Not Special Rights is seeking a referendum this fall on a city charter amendment that would prohibit the commission from approving gay-rights measures.

A conservative legal foundation threatened to sue after the city's Human Rights Commission requested an investigation of a police officer who complained about having the rainbow sticker on his squad car.

Both Tompkins and Mayor Larry Hardy have said they hadn't thought of the rainbow of being a symbol for gays and hadn't intended to make a statement about sexual orientation. Tompkins, 68, said it had reminded him of the Wizard of Oz song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

But the commissioner who suggested the program last fall, Margaret Dodd, said the idea followed a rash of reported hate crimes, including an attack on a worker at a gay bar.

The stickers were "designed to show solidarity with all the minorities who have been under attack," she said.

Dodd said she knew of the rainbow's association with the gay movement but said it has a longer history as a generic peace symbol.

"If you follow the logic that because one group uses a symbol everybody else who has previously used it has to quit, the churches would have to get rid of the cross ... because white supremacits use it," she said.

M'Lynn Hartwell of Traverse City said the furor illustrated how something was needed to pull the community together and counter "a growing tyranny of hate and fanaticism."

By JOHN FLESHER
©MMI, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed