(ReliableNews.org) – Congress recently passed a government funding bill at the eleventh hour. Hidden inside of the package was a ban on Pride flags at US embassies. The White House is furious over the prohibition and has vowed to repeal it.
On March 23, President Joe Biden signed a spending package into law. The bill funded six federal agencies and other government priorities. Tucked away in the legislation was a GOP rider that limited the flags that US embassies can fly. The purpose was to ban Pride flags by only allowing very specific flags to fly.
According to the change, the only flags allowed to fly over the buildings moving forward are the US flag, POW/MIA flag, US Foreign Service flag, the District of Columbia flag, flag of the state, a flag of an “insular area,” the hostage and wrongful detainee flag, the official flag of a US agency, the flag of a tribal government, or those of other nations.
In a statement to Bloomberg, the White House said the president “believes it was inappropriate to abuse the process” to keep the government open by adding a “policy targeting LGBTQI+ Americans.” It went on to say US embassies would continue to celebrate Pride and that the administration was going to work with lawmakers to repeal the provision.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) allegedly sold the new policy as a win to his base, and he tried to get the votes for the spending package. Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, lashed out at Johnson, saying his “big win is pathetic.”
https://x.com/bjoewolf/status/1771197744549429571
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that the administration was going to try to repeal the policy. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she also bragged that Democrats “defeated 50+ other policies attacking” LGBTQ+ Americans.
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