(PJ Media) The recently passed $1.2 trillion funding bill contained a little-noticed amendment that effectively bans the flying of the “pride” flag from U.S. embassies around the world.
The law says that no U.S. funding can be used to “fly or display a flag over a facility of the United States Department of State” other than the U.S. flag, other government-related flags like the prisoner of war or MIA flag, or flags in support of hostages and illegally imprisoned Americans.
This is interpreted as being “anti-LGBTQI+” because the “pride” flag had flown over some embassies in the past. Actually, I protest that embassies cannot fly the “Smokey the Bear” flag or the “Magic Kingdom” flag they fly at Disney. Those flags have as much business flying over a foreign U.S. enclave as the “pride” flag.
If you’re going to fly a “pride” flag to celebrate the LGBT movement for equality, why not a flag to celebrate the movement for women’s equality, black equality, Hispanic equality, Puerto Rican statehood, or any other of a dozen “movements” that would represent a goodly number of Americans who yearn for equal rights?
In today’s lexicon, the “pride” flag should not be flown because it’s “exclusionary.”
That’s nonsense. Of course presidents and Congress include all sorts of riders and amendments that “abuse” the funding process. The fact that the current funding process is an abuse of the Constitution and the American people apparently doesn’t matter as much as showing a powerful lobby you’re on their side.
