Less than two years ago I was sitting opposite

Secretary

Anthony

J.

Blinken as he spoke proudly about the work the State Department was doing to combat discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity around the world. It was Pride 2022 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs hosted a small group of LGBTQ+ journalists at the department for a roundtable discussion.

When I raise human rights issues, when I raise democracy issues, I often say to the people who were affected by them, it’s not exactly a secret that we have our own challenges that we’re working through at home, he said. We are not trying to sweep the problem or issue under the rug.

The truth is, we can’t sweep the problem under the rug. It’s so pervasive that even in the $1.2 trillion spending deal President Biden signed this weekend, America’s conflict over LGBTQ+ people took center stage. With the famine in Gaza, with a migrant crisis at our own southern border, Republicans still made time to target gays.

When Blinken held his symposium, the rainbow flag flew over U.S. embassies around the world to mark Pride Month.

Not anymore.

A new ban, woven into the spending bill that Biden signed on Saturday, states

That

none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act shall be obligated or expended to fly or display any flag over any facility of the United States Department of State. Exceptions include POW/MIA flags or the sovereign flags of other countries. The Pride flag may still be displayed on site, but the law does not

influence

the State Department initiatives that Blinken shared in 2022. The government has already said it will push for this ban to be revoked.

Who would ever think that banning Pride flags should be a top priority right now?

With Ukraine running low on ammunition to hold Russia’s invasion at bay, and after Russian President Vladimir Putin casually threatened nuclear war, U.S. elected officials spent the past week figuring out how to replace the flagpoles of the world this month could de-homoize. of June.

The camera-chasing, uncompromising Freedom Caucus wanted more: Nearly fifty anti-LGBTQ+ proposals were ultimately excluded from the budget deal. Just banning rainbow flags at embassies has appeased enough of the Republican members who were trying to prevent a government shutdown, you know, those patriots who just had to make sure they did

some

damage to human rights while the federal government remains open.

This is all too familiar. Within hours of taking office in 2017, Donald Trump had nearly every mention of the LGBTQ+ community removed from federal websites. House Speaker Mike Johnson built his career as a lawyer defending anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Elections have consequences, and I shudder to think what the consequences will be for gay people around the world if these two get their way.

The problem is global and the US will be a leader on the world stage in both freedom and repression. Most Americans, including most Republicans, now support LGBTQ+ rights, unlike 20 years ago, but the fight is far from over and the outcome is far from certain. There is still an endless barrage of hateful legislation here in the United States. And since 1980, acceptance of LGBTQ+ people has fallen in 57 countries.

In more than sixty countries, same-sex relationships are a crime. Last year, the number of countries where homosexuality is punishable by death rose to seven.

A rainbow flag flying high above a U.S. government compound represents hope for many people. Imagine what seeing that flag on our military bases in Afghanistan must have meant to the trapped Afghans. Or at the US embassy in Botswana, which decriminalized same-sex relationships a few years ago.

The federal budget is supposed to reflect our financial priorities. No one can imagine that raising rainbow flags at embassies is a problem because it is expensive. It’s not. Those flags were no problem at all; they were an opportunity. We were in an election year and the Conservatives wanted to throw a piece of red meat at their base while they campaigned.

Although Biden signed the budget bill, a White House statement condemned the Republicans’ pandering: It was inappropriate to abuse the process essential to keeping the government open by including these policies that target LGBTQI+ Americans . We will continue to work with members of Congress to find an opportunity to repeal it.

It’s encouraging to know that the left is still looking for ways to raise the Pride flag, because conservatives are clearly not interested in raising a white flag in their war against LGBTQ+ people.

@LZGranderson