White House vows to repeal GOP-led ban on Pride flags over U.S. embassies
The White House is vowing to repeal a provision in the newly passed government spending bill that essentially bans rainbow Pride flags from being flown above U.S. embassies.
The $1.2 trillion package, which President Biden signed into law Saturday to avert a government shutdown, included a Republican-authored provision that limits the types of flags that can be flown or displayed over U.S. embassies to the U.S. 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.
GOP lawmakers hope to use that provision to prevent Biden-nominated officials from displaying Pride flags at official locations at U.S. diplomatic outposts.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement over the weekend that the Biden administration fought the provision and would work with Congress to repeal it.
“President Biden believes it was inappropriate to abuse the process that is essential to keep the government open by including this policy targeting LGBTQI+ Americans,” Jean-Pierre said.
She noted the Biden administration has defeated more than 50 other anti-LGBTQ+ policies that Republicans had attempted to insert into the funding bill.
The president “is committed to fighting for LGBTQI+ equality at home and abroad,” Jean-Pierre said.
The provision in question is the latest in a years-long tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans over display of the Pride flag at U.S. embassies. Under President Donald Trump, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected all embassy requests to fly the Pride flag on flagpoles outside U.S. embassies. Vice President Mike Pence later defended the move as “the right decision,” saying that “one flag should fly, and that’s the American flag.”
In April 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken granted embassy leaders a “blanket authorization” to fly the Pride flag in support of LGBTQ+ rights.
“When we’re trying to advance, defend, support the protection of LGBTQI persons around the world, we want to make sure that we’re doing this in a way that takes into account the specific situation, conditions in a given country,” Blinken said a few months after the policy change. “But in every single country where we’re represented, our chiefs of mission, our ambassadors, our charges – whoever’s in charge – have the authority to fly the Pride flag on an exterior, external-facing pole at the embassy.”
Jacob Bogage and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.