The Trump administration has denied requests by several U.S. embassies to fly rainbow flags to celebrate LGBT Pride Month in June, according to a report by NBC News. Diplomats at embassies in Brazil, Germany, Israel, and Latvia, among others, requested permission to fly the flag below the U.S. flag, something the Obama administration had allowed.
Vice President Mike Pence confirmed the U.S. State Department directive in an interview on Monday: “As the president said on the night we were elected, we’re proud to be able to serve every American … but when it comes to the American flagpole at American embassies in capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
LGBT activists blasted the move, saying it runs counter to Trump’s tweet on May 31 celebrating LGBT Pride Month and the “outstanding contributions of LGBT people have made to our great Nation.”
Some embassies are reportedly ignoring the instructions or finding ways around them: U.S. missions in Seoul, South Korea, and Chennai, India, are displaying rainbow flags on their façade, while the embassy in New Delhi installed a rainbow light display. Embassies in Santiago, Chile, and Vienna, Austria, flew rainbow flags below the American flag last month for International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.
Stateside, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, ordered the raising of the rainbow flag below the U.S. and Wisconsin flags atop the state Capitol last week, a move that some said “signified a new direction for Wisconsin,” but others condemned as an abuse of gubernatorial power. “Singling out one group that has inordinate political power is wrong and is disrespectful to, at a minimum, those who take exception to the LGBT agenda,” said Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action. —K.C.
Comments
CGK
Posted: Tue, 06/18/2019 10:03 amYou might want to check the call for reform actually published by USCCB. It includes appointing lay people to a review board, which would be an historic change. Also you don’t seem to realize that the Americans are at the forefront of demanding changes from the Vatican. And by the way the US Catholic churches can’t independently enforce reforms not approved by the Vatican.