The Pride flag has historically represented the LGBT community’s pride in who we are, celebrated our diversity, and reminded us of the progress we’ve made towards equality over the past half century. It’s a unifying rallying cry to come together in the fight for inclusion and equality.
Or at least it used to be. Not anymore.
The Pride flag has gone far beyond the inspiring symbol its designers originally intended in their march for LGBT rights. Over the last few years, the far Left has co-opted the flag as a symbol for their own radical political and cultural agendas that divide and exclude more than unite and inspire.
It’s why you didn’t see many conservative LGBT Americans flying the Pride flag this Pride Month…and won’t be until the flag is planted back in its roots.
Turn on the news and you’ll see the Pride flag everywhere - and not usually in a unifying way. It’s become a banner for the activists crusading to indoctrinate young children with bizarre gender ideologies. It’s become associated with demands from radical Black Lives Matter activists that have nothing to do with LGBT issues, a brand logo for corporations pushing backwards DEI practices, and signal of opposition to President Trump and Republicans. It’s now a standard feature at public and grotesquely overly-sexualized displays that evoke more embarrassment than “pride.” Insanely, it’s even been flown at anti-Israel protests by activists who are disgustingly - and idiotically - trying to associate the LGBT community with support for Hamas.
Activists can’t even agree on what the flag looks like anymore. No longer content with the universal rainbow flag, they now prefer the “Progress” flag, which has been weighed down with so many new symbols, colors, and shapes of other causes in just the past few years that it’s become nearly unrecognizable.
Leftist activists defend their co-opting of the Pride flag under the guise of “intersectionality.” In reality, it’s exclusionary and divisive, leaving little desire for anyone in the LGBT community or among its allies who disagree to fly a Pride flag of their own. LGBT Americans who don’t subscribe to this radical agenda have watched in horror as the Pride flag we once all rallied under has been buried by an avalanche of Leftism.
The most alarming evidence of the Pride flag’s ascent into cult-like Leftwing political radicalism is its elevation to the American flag. A recent memo from the 24 Hour Fitness gym chain instructed employees that, while the Pride flag could be worn by staff any day, the American flag could only be worn on specific holidays. We’ve seen the Pride flag flown at the same level as the American flag at Veterans Affairs offices and even - under the current Administration - the White House itself.
That the Pride flag would supersede the American flag in this way is heart-breaking to veterans who served under her colors and maddening to anyone - including LGBT Americans - who hold pride in their country over their sexuality. No flag should be more sacred to us than our nation’s flag.
The Pride flag’s sudden dizzying association with these radical political agendas has predictably prompted a political backlash that threatens to reverse decades of hard-earned progress for the LGBT community. Record-high numbers of Americans currently support LGBT marriage equality and civil rights protections. There’s never been a better time to be an openly LGBT American in our country. Yet destructively, these same Left-wing activists who have appropriated the Pride flag into their own partisan political symbol - on issues that have nothing to do with LGBT RIGHTS - label opposition to the flag as homophobia.
Homophobia? Let’s be loud and clear about one simple fact: the Pride flag no longer represents the LGBT community. It represents a cabal of Leftist activists who are posing under the banner of our community to push their own extreme political agendas that many of us, like most Americans, also oppose. A sympathetic media, the Democrat Party, and much of corporate America have let them get away with it, and in so doing has betrayed the original and timeless purpose of not just the Pride flag, but the entire movement itself.
These activists do not speak for all of us. Maybe someday the Pride flag will return to its roots. Until then, don’t be surprised that many LGBT Americans chose to fly the American flag instead this year.
Charles Moran is the President of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and their allies.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member