Opinion| It has been reported that multiple United States Embassies have gone against direction from the State Department that said not to display LGBTQ flags for Pride Month.
On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that numerous ambassadors and diplomats made the decision to go against the instructions not to fly the flags.
“This is a category one insurrection,” a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous explained to the Washington Post, answering to “the wave of disobedience to the State Department’s rule,” reports the Daily Caller.
“The U.S. embassies in Seoul, South Korea, and Chennai, India, have prominently displayed rainbow flags on the sides of their buildings for Pride Month, according to the report.
The embassy in New Delhi also bypassed the State Department’s instruction by decorating its building with rainbow lights for the month-long celebration.”
The United States Embassy in New Delhi is lit up in #Pride colors to celebrate #PrideMonth. #LGBTPrideMonth pic.twitter.com/v6gxzAps8a
— U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) June 4, 2019
The United States’ Embassy in Santiago, Chile, flew the LGBTQ rainbow flag in order to “celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on May 17, seen in a video posted on the embassy’s website,” according to the Daily Caller.
The embassy located in Vienna also flew the flag right below the American flag. According to the Daily Caller, the flags were on “a pole hanging from the side of the embassy’s outer wall, as shown on its website.”
Numerous U.S. diplomats tweeted photos from Jerusalem showing themselves visiting local pride events. Among these events were a March for Pride and Tolerance, as reported by the Washington Post.
The U.S. ambassador to Nepal, Randy Berry, sent out a tweet containing a photo of himself standing with embassy employees. They were proudly displaying rainbow letters which read “PRIDE.”
Today, along with the U.S. Mission in Nepal community, I join people around the world in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Intersex #PrideMonth, and reaffirm the U.S. commitment to defending human rights for all. #Pride2019 pic.twitter.com/5awKWtcP80
— Ambassador Randy Berry (@USAmbNepal) June 1, 2019
Via the Daily Caller:
Under the Obama administration, open permission was given to fly rainbow flags for pride celebrations at U.S. embassy buildings as long as the rainbow flags were smaller and hung lower than the American flag, according to WaPo.
President Donald Trump’s State Department has denied requests to fly rainbow flags on embassy flagpoles during June, though displaying the flag on walls of the embassy or in other ways is permissible, according to NBC News.
