The White House is vowing to repeal a provision in the newly passed government spending bill that blocks U.S. embassies from flying the LGBT pride flag.
The ban was a provision tucked inside the $1.2 trillion spending package signed by Biden on Saturday to avoid a government shutdown.
The move is a reversal from the State Department’s 2021 authorization for U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world to fly pride flags, Axios reports.
The new measure stipulates 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 American flag; the U.S. Foreign Service flag; the POW/MIA flag; the hostage and wrongful detainee flag; the flag of a state, “insular area” or the District of Columbia; the flag of an Indian tribal government; the official branded flag of a U.S. agency; or the sovereign flag of other countries.
A White House statement said, “Biden believes it was inappropriate to abuse the process that was essential to keep the government open by including this policy targeting LGBTQI+ Americans,” adding that the president “is committed to fighting for LGBTQI+ equality at home and abroad.”
The administration added that while the White House was not able to block the flag proposal it was “successful in defeating 50+ other policy riders attacking the LGBTQI+ community that Congressional Republicans attempted to insert into the legislation.”
“It will have no impact on the ability of members of the LGBTQI+ community to serve openly in our embassies or to celebrate Pride,” the White House added, referencing June, a time of year when activists now flood the world with LGBTQ promotion.
Ben Shapiro, conservative commentator with the DailyWire, called the White House’s move “perverse and absurd.” “It is perverse and absurd to fly a pride flag at a U.S. embassy.
The only flag you should be flying is the American flag because it is the only flag that stands for all Americans. It should not be a segmented, politicized flag that only stands for a small percentage of the population,” he shared on social media.
