Why LGBTQ+ pride matters in embassy flag controversy
If you want to find a symbol of the current political dysfunction in Washington as well as resurgent antagonism toward the LGBTQ+ community, you could scarcely do better than the provision within the $1.2 government funding package signed into law Saturday by President Joe Biden that bans certain flags from being flown over U.S. State Department facilities. That language essentially reversed a 3-year-old State Department authorization that said U.S. embassies could display LGBTQ+ Pride flags. In other words, our elected leaders in the nation’s capital can’t get important matters done but when it comes time to discriminate — or at least send a message that the less powerful in society should not get their hopes raised — there’s always a way to make things happen.
Does flying the rainbow Pride flag over, for example, the U.S. embassy in Riga — as U.S. officials did with their Latvian counterparts to commemorate International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia last
May — make a difference in human rights? We don’t know but it sure seems like symbols matter. At least they do to people like House Speaker Mike Johnson as the Louisiana Republican has reportedly expressed some measure of pride in that particular provision — even as he continues to take criticism from the far-right for approving the spending package in the first place. And it seems to matter to President Joe Biden as a White House spokesperson was criticizing the flag ban within hours of Biden signing it into law vowing the president would work with members of Congress to repeal it.
We hate to give away the plot to this backroom drama but it’s not difficult to see where this is going. Congress won’t be reversing itself, not with MAGA Republicans relishing moments like this. If Donald Trump’s party could make this year’s election about hot button social issues (well, with the possible exception of reproductive rights where at least some realize it’s costing the GOP dearly with female voters), they’d surely
do so. It should come as no shock that the spending package also includes language shutting down the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion and replacing it with the “Office of Talent Management.” So much for promoting diversity of any kind in Congress.
Maybe this is all just a game to the political types trying to get Trump back in the White House but one has to wonder what kind of message is being received by the millions of non-white, non-straight Americans who are watching these not-so-subtle attacks get advanced — and even signed into law by their supposed allies. Here’s one possibility: It’s a message that they are distinctly second-class citizens. Back in the real world outside Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, LGBTQ+ young people are having it tough. The latest FBI data observes that hate crimes against LGBTQ+ students has more than doubled in recent years. And where are they worst? In states that have passed laws curbing LGBTQ+ student rights and education.
Cultural conservatives put a lot of energy into amplifying the harmful impact of transgender athletes, placing
an extraordinary level of scrutiny on the one-half of 1% of Americans who identify as transgender. One might think all of them had taken up competitive sports. Some have estimated there may be fewer than 100 trans women nationwide competing in NCAA athletics. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from charging Democrats who support transgender athletes with trying to “erase women,” as recently claimed by none other than Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympic gold medalist who transitioned in 2015.
That’s why we would urge embassies, schools, houses of worship, military bases, local governments and all of us with access to a flagpole or even a couple of thumb tacks and a window to raise the Pride flag in response to this ongoing assault and make clear to all Americans that we don’t accept efforts to relegate some of us to second-class citizen status. June is Pride Month but it’s never too soon to recognize the positive impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally. And then maybe Congress can devote itself to more important tasks like approving aid to Ukraine.