Call the Flag Bill What It Is

I’m upset about the flag bill, HR 4392, the Flag Standardization Act of 2021.

Why didn’t Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks just call it the “I hate the gay and black people flags act” when she introduced it?

It was bad enough when Republicans reacted to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcement he would permit the “LGBT flag” (in April) and the “Black Lives Matter” flag (in May) to fly over U.S. embassies.

Right after President Biden signed an executive order recognizing June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month, the Republican Freedom Caucus skullduggery crew got to work on their own bill, HR 85, the Old Glory Only Act. Joined by such eminent Republican members as Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, Madison Cawthorne, and others, the bill had 20 co-sponsors.

It went nowhere.

In the hell’s kitchen of Republican legislation cookery Miller-Meeks’ bill may seem like a compromise. Truth is it is a restoration of the policy of President Donald Trump’s homophobic ban of the LGBT flag on Federal property. We want no part of that.

Don’t Congressional Republicans have better things to do?

~ Published in Little Village on Sept. 9, 2021.