How on earth did we get here?
[ATTACH=full]367910[/ATTACH]Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has backed prohibiting U.S. embassies from flying the Pride flag, even as Pride month saw American diplomatic posts around the world—from Bahrain to the Vatican—standing with the LGBTQ community.
During a Thursday night appearance on Newsmax, Greene told host Greg Kelly she was “so proud” to co-sponsor the Old Glory Only Act, which seeks to ban any flag other than the U.S. flag from flying over American diplomatic and consular establishments.
“The reason why this is important is the American flag is the flag that represents every single American, we don’t need political identity politics, we don’t need the Democrat party making one group more important than the other,” Greene said.
“The only flag that should fly over any of our U.S. embassies, over any of our federal buildings is Old Glory, the beautiful Stars and Stripes, and that’s why I’m so proud of this bill and very happy to be a co-sponsor.”
Kelly asked Greene whether she believed the presence of Pride and Black Lives Matter flags at U.S. embassies were “Biden administration-initiated,” to which Greene responded: “I believe so.”
U.S. embassies were given a collective green light to fly rainbow flags during Pride month in June under former President Barack Obama. His successor, Donald Trump, reversed course by ordering embassies to seek permission before displaying the flags.
The Trump administration reportedly rejected most requests to fly the flag, while several U.S. embassies defiantly flouted the policy during Pride month. This year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken granted a blanket authorization for embassies to fly the Pride flag on the same flagpole as the U.S. flag, according to a State Department cable reported by multiple news outlets.
Greene went on: “And first of all, Black Lives Matter is a domestic terrorist organization, so that is no flag that should ever fly over any of our government buildings. The LGBTQ flag, that’s not a flag that needs to be flown over our government buildings either.”
“The American flag represents all Americans and that is the only flag that should ever be flown, period.”
The Old Glory Only Act was introduced to the House in January by Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, who had previously introduced it in 2018 and 2019. Aside from Greene, the bill’s 17 GOP co-sponsors include other controversial representatives, such as Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
When first announcing her co-sponsoring of the bill in February, Greene only mentioned an opposition to embassies displaying Black Lives Matter flags, saying the U.S. “should NOT be flying a flag of a group who wants to erase our history and bring mass destruction to our country through Communism.”