To celebrate “Pride” month, the US Embassy to the Holy See is flying the rainbow LGBT flag during June.
“The US Embassy to the Holy See celebrates #PrideMonth with the Pride flag on display during the month of June,” the embassy tweeted from its official account.
“The United States respects the dignity and equality of LGBTQI+ people. LGBTQI+ rights are human rights.”
Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that US embassies and consulates around the world could fly the “Pride” flag on the same flagpole as the American flag during “Pride season.”
Under the Trump administration, US diplomatic outposts were reportedly prohibited from flying the rainbow flag from embassy flagpoles. They had to obtain special permission to do so and were only allowed to display the flag inside buildings.
The announcement has met with some resistance.
Representative Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South Carolina, said he “saw this coming.”
Duncan called the US embassy’s Vatican move “disrespectful” and “inappropriate”.
It represents “exactly why I filed the Old Glory Only Act. The only flag flying at our embassies should be the flag of the United States of America,” Duncan concluded.
Others who objected to the announcement noted that the flag’s celebration of certain sexual activities would fly in the face of many local cultures where US Embassies ought to take a respectful, diplomatic posture.
Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Daniel Kochis, for instance, said that such “pushing” of “‘progressive’ narratives often runs afoul of local religious or cultural sensitivities and will besmirch the US as an impartial interlocutor in many countries.”
But Antony Blinken’s cable on “Pride” flags advised that diplomatic posts in certain countries should avoid flying the rainbow flag if doing so would create a backlash.
President Joe Biden issued a statement on June 1 for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month, 2021.”
“Pride is both a jubilant communal celebration of visibility and a personal celebration of self-worth and dignity,” Biden stated.
Sources
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