Editor’s note: The Sopris Sun elected not to list a party’s name in this article, out of respect for their privacy, but did reach out for comment without success.
The Carbondale Historic Food Forest doesn’t seem like it’d be the place for a controversy to unravel. It’s off the beaten path, tucked away compared to other public parks in town and boasts a permaculture garden adjacent to the historic Thompson House.
For nearly 10 years, the Food Forest has been volunteer managed, and in no small part by Erin Anderson, who is listed as a liaison between the Roaring Fork Food Alliance — charged with stewarding the permaculture garden — and the Town in an MOU. The park has been decorated with LGBTQ+ flags over the years and Anderson said she will slap an occasional “safe-space” sticker on the public trashcan outside of the restrooms. Until recently, there have not been any complaints Anderson is aware of. However, discontent came to the surface with several calls to law enforcement and allegations of harassment plus the citing of a “storage on public rights-of-way” violation — for the flags.
Ashley Stahl met Anderson earlier in the year when Cook Inclusive, a queer-affirming nonprofit of which Stahl is the executive director, provided Pride flags to replace ones at the Food Forest that had gone missing. In late June, according to Anderson and her now-girlfriend, Stahl, someone approached them on more than one occasion at the Food Forest and allegedly took issue with the Pride decor as well as their sexual orientation, identity and physical appearances. Stahl is a trans woman and Erin identifies as queer and goes by they/she pronouns.
At one point, the two installed a trail camera at the Food Forest and determined that the person removing the missing Pride flags was the same they’d come into contact with. The couple had their 1-year-old daughter with them during at least one of these interactions, and stated that the individual was taking pictures of her while she was asleep in the car nearby. Stahl conceded that they were not directly threatened with harm, other than a suggestion of legal recourse. Anderson added, however, that she did fear for her and her loved ones’ safety.
“I think the behavior [was] inherently threatening,” echoed Stahl.
Both parties called the police a handful of times. There are four associated incident reports from the Carbondale Police Department, with the first call coming in on June 2 for “graffiti on a trash can near the public bathrooms.” That first police report concluded, however, that “Public Works had covered most of it with spray paint” — “it” being a sticker on the trash can. This was a point of confusion, because Anderson was convinced it was the other party, who she claimed to have witnessed removing stickers before, when, in fact, the Town had painted over it — partly in hopes of diffusing the situation, but also for the sake of maintaining consistency with other town parks.
On June 30 around 3pm, Stahl called and reported the flags being removed and she and her child being yelled at , according to a supplemental report. Later that day, officers responded again and “found both parties to be at fault” in a verbal disagreement, citing the argument over the placement of Pride flags. Anderson said she has yet to receive an explanation for what it was she or Stahl did to be considered “at fault.”
According to Police Chief Kirk Wilson, whenever officers attempted to mediate, no accusations articulated by either party amounted to criminal. The chief acknowledged that there was some following and picture-taking, according to Stahl and Anderson’s report, but that the latter, at least, was not criminal in and of itself. “The fact of the matter is that no laws have been broken on either side,” said Wilson. The department had also consulted with the district attorney’s office.
Anderson, particularly, was frustrated that the police would not file harassment charges for what she described to The Sun as “violent, in-your-face homophobia” occurring repeatedly. She claimed that the police’s inaction emboldened the problem.
The police considered it, in part, a First Amendment issue: the right to fly a Pride flag and the right to protest it. Wilson acknowledged that someone expressing their views to others can be uncomfortable, but is protected. He added that the Town can’t favor one side over the other in this respect, noting Supreme Court precedent.
Asked what the threshold is for someone to be charged with verbal harassment, Wilson replied, “That threshold is crossed when the speech creates an immediate breach of the peace. This tends to be words that by their very utterance are likely to provoke a violent reaction.
Being that the First Amendment protects speech we have to be very careful when it comes to taking enforcement action when we are dealing with speech.”
However, seeing that Stahl and Anderson truly felt harassed, the police suggested they seek a protection order.
On July 1, Stahl provided the police with a copy of a temporary protection order, preventing the respondent from coming into contact with Stahl, her child or within 100 yards of the Food Forest. Following a court hearing, the temporary protection order was adjusted to permit the respondent to approach the perimeter of the Food Forest, but not venture inside. The respondent is to appear back in court in April, when they’ll have “the opportunity to explain (show cause) why this order shouldn’t be made permanent.” Anderson is not listed on the protection order.
Anderson said she doesn’t want to invite hostility to the Food Forest, a public space that is utilized for the sake of permacultural and historical education for all ages. “I definitely had a moment when I contemplated, ‘Is it just safer to take [the Pride flags] down and not fight this?’” she confided.
Stahl concluded with a call to the community: “Every Pride flag that gets pulled down, let’s put two up.”