Kitchener council voted against tabling a motion to discuss flying the rainbow flag at city hall for the duration of the Olympics at a council meeting Monday.

The motion was brought forward by Ward 9 councillor Frank Etherington who thinks the flag should become a fixture at city hall during the Winter Games, in order to show support for LGBT athletes.

According to council process, in order to get a motion on the floor that's not already on the agenda, council must vote with a two-thirds majority. But the motion only got seven votes, not the eight required.

"To me flying the rainbow flag was the right thing for Kitchener to do," said Etherington.

But other councillors didn't want to get into the debate, and voted against discussing the matter further.

Etherington said he thinks the motion was voted down because council has a flag protocol that does not allow special interest groups to fly flags outside city hall.

Instead council agreed to let the local gay rights group, Tri-Pride, create an educational display in city hall's rotunda to
explain Russia's anti-gay law and the issues gay athletes are facing.

"Flying the flag to me would be a far superior demonstration of public support than any display in the rotunda," said Etherington.

Over the past week, cities across Canada have made the decision to fly the rainbow flag, including Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Guelph.