A little over a year ago, when he was trying to guarantee votes to adopt a $ 1.2 billion spending package, the chamber president would have declared to the House that Mike Johnson would have declared to the members of the tax conservative of his party to vote for the bill in part because he had prohibited the Flying Pride flags on the American embassies. Johnson's tactics were not a surprise. Before running at Congress, Johnson worked as a lawyer for an anti-LGBTQ + organization and, more than one opportunity, had pleaded before the court against the legalization of homosexual marriage. However, it was rather revealing that with a deadline for closing of the government which is looming, Johnson was unable to reach his troops around the merit of the bill, but rather their aversion to the rainbow flags.
When President Biden signed the expenditure invoice with the prohibitionHe promised the Americans that his administration would work 24 hours a day to find a way to remove the prohibition. Five months later, Biden abandoned the race, and today the moratorium on the flags of pride is still in place. I do not know how much money the country saves politics, but I know that the message it sends to the rest of the world cannot be worth it.
The United Nations Refugees Agency estimates that there are more than 44 million refugees worldwide. It is the triple of the number of people fleeing conflicts or persecution only ten years ago. The nations that contribute the most refugees are Afghanistan and Syria, with 6.4 million each, followed by Venezuela (6.1 million) and Ukraine (6 million).
In Afghanistan, death is the maximum sentence to be queer, while in Syria, it is punishable by a sentence of up to three years in prison. In Venezuela, being LGBTQ + is not a crime, but the police still harass the community by making raids. In Ukraine, members of the LGBTQ + community can be used in the military to fight in his war with Russia, but homosexual relations are not legally recognized. This means that if the love of your life died in combat, the government would not even have to inform you. They are just gone and it is up to the surviving partner to determine if their beloved is buried and if so, where.
The 19th century American poet Emma Lazarus said that she had written the sonnet “the new colossus” to collect funds for the construction of the statue of freedom because she thought that the statue would serve as a welcome sign for new immigrants arriving in the port of New York.
“A powerful woman with a torch, whose flame is imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles,” wrote Lazarus shortly after the civil war in 1883. Between 1880 and 1920, more than 20 million immigrants – mainly from Europe – went to the United States
During this four decades section, it was not only heterosexuals coming to our coasts in search of a better life. And they are not only heterosexuals among the 44 million refugees estimated around the world. This is why until last year, the flag of pride flew over the American embassies in June, to let the desperate souls who fled who were fled to find comfort in the arms of the mother of the exiles. Now, this is no longer true – not because of a strategic decision of foreign policy, but because some members of the Congress – like Johnson – just don't like queer. A strange behavior of a political party which claims that it does not like the policy of identity.
Last month, the Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina announcement She had defected her country of origin and became an Australian citizen because she is openly queer. She said that As an exit anchlete, she “did not have much choice”.
Last year, when the Republicans were trying to decorate the males of our embassies, the world also learned that the Supreme Court of Russia said that the rainbow flag was prohibited in its country. If Ukraine falls, the rights of its residents LGBTQ + will most likely fall with it.
Kasatkina's decision to leave her country of origin made her a political refugee. Now she's in the country down.
The United States was previously the kind of country that welcomed the persecuted, but I guess it did not consider us the best option. Difficult to blame him.
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Ideas expressed in the play
- The author argues that the American ban on pride flags in the embassies, negotiated by the president of the Mike Johnson Chamber, indicates a rejection of the LGBTQ + refugees and undermines the historic role of America as a sanctuary for the persecuted groups(1)(5). This policy is considered a political maneuver rooted in the long -standing opposition of Johnson to LGBTQ +rights, including its legal work against homosexual marriage(1)(5).
- The article highlights the disastrous circumstances faced by LGBTQ + individuals in countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine, where homosexual relations are criminalized or not recognized, and contrasts this with the reduction of the will of the United States to visibly support these communities through symbolic gestures such as the stalls of the Flood of the United States(1)(5).
- Granderson criticizes the prohibition in the context of a broader change towards the identity policy by the Republicans, despite their claims to oppose such tactics, and connects it to the pure and simple ban by Russia of rainbow flags as a parallel erosion of LGBTQ + rights(1)(5).
Different views on the subject
- Supporters of the prohibition, including decision -makers like Marco Rubio, argue that the American flag alone should represent national unity, citing the provision of the law of credits of 2024 which restricts the exhibitions of the embassy to “authorized symbols” to avoid divisive cultural messaging(1)(3). They supervise politics as reinforcing patriotism and avoiding partisan symbolism perceived in diplomatic spaces(1)(3).
- Conservative defenders, including groups behind Project 2025, argue that LGBTQ + visibility policies promote “toxic normalization” and conflict with traditional family values. They seek to eliminate terms such as “gender identity” of federal regulations and reverse protections for LGBTQ + people in workplaces, schools and health care, arguing that these measures protect religious freedom and biological definitions of sex(2)(4)(6)(7)(8).
- Opponents of the exhibitions of the flag of pride also link their position to national security and diplomatic priorities, claiming that American foreign policy should avoid problems of “cultural war” and focus on wider strategic interests rather than defending LGBTQ + rights abroad(2)(6)(9).
