It's a bit of a shame these days that Flag Day falls in June. Now that LGBT activists have hijacked the month, you can't blame Americans for wondering: which flag are we celebrating? At some U.S. embassies, it's tough to tell.
At diplomatic posts in India, Austria, and Chile, there's one thing people are noticing about our flagpoles -- how crowded they are. That's because the Stars and Stripes aren't the only thing flying. At some embassies, U.S. officials are ignoring the Trump administration's decision and hoisting the rainbow anyway. Apparently, after eight years of rubbing their extreme agenda in other countries' faces, some ambassadors are having a hard time letting go.
Some American diplomats have gotten around Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's directive by tacking the LGBT banner on their buildings or making balloon bouquets on the ground spelling out PRIDE. Others have flat-out ignored the president's team, sending a message to the administration -- and the world -- that their radical sexual agenda is more important to them than their relationship with the host country.
Under Barack Obama, world leaders were furious with the way the president used the State Department to export his LGBT agenda globally, a form of cultural imperialism. Trump's predecessor not only sent ambassadors who identify as gay into countries that are culturally opposed to homosexuality, they used foreign aid to bully other nations into accepting his twisted policies. From appointing a special taxpayer-funded LGBT envoy to changing the rules for same-sex diplomats, he openly demonized nations that refused to recognize homosexuality as an international "human right."
Now, fortunately, after an eight-year LGBT pride parade, Americans' have a new vision for diplomacy -- one that respects other nations and their beliefs. Under Secretary Pompeo's leadership, ambassadors were told that there should only be one flag on embassy poles. It's the same one we drape on the coffins of our heroes coming home. The same banner our soldiers fought to raise in places like Iwo Jima -- and the same one dotting the cemeteries of the men who died trying. It's the one flag capable of uniting an entire country: the Stars and Stripes.
FRC's Travis Weber applauded the move, arguing that America's diplomatic platform "is intended to strengthen our ties to other countries. The State Department should not use its influential role in world affairs to push a social agenda onto vulnerable countries. Yet that is exactly what President Obama did, and what President Trump and Secretary Pompeo are trying to stop."
As Franklin Graham points out, that's not an easy task -- especially not when the administration has to fight the entitled diplomats still operating in the Trump State Department. "I want to thank President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for making the decision not to fly the gay flag over our embassies during June in recognition of gay pride month. That is the right decision. The only flag that should fly over our embassies is the flag of the United States of America. The gay pride flag is offensive to Christians and millions of people of other faiths, not only in this country but around the world. The U.S. flag represents our nation -- everyone -- regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation."
Imagine how outraged the Left would be if we called on the president to fly the Christian flag! At least that would represent the majority of Americans -- not a tiny LGBT fringe. The point is, it's a double standard. Liberals are horrified at the thought of promoting religion because they think it's offensive -- but they have no problem flaunting a morally offensive ideology that stomps all over the traditions and beliefs of many of the countries that host our embassies.
The United States has the chance to reset our relations with the countries that Obama's push for LGBT policies have alienated. It's time for the men and women in U.S. embassies to start working with the president -- not against him.
Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.