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Sunday, Jun. 13, 2021

Did the Trump administration in 2019 prohibit US embassies from flying rainbow flags in observance of Pride month?

Stevie Rosignol-Cortez, Gigafact

yes

Once during its term, in 2019, the Trump administration recognized June as LGBT Pride month. It declined to let U.S. embassies observe the event by hoisting the symbolic rainbow flag beneath the national flag that flies above their facilities.

In 2019, then-Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that the administration declined requests from some U.S. embassies to continue a practice that began in the Obama years. “…When it comes to the American flagpole, at American embassies and capitals around the world, having one American flag fly I think is the right decision,” he said in an interview with NBC at the time. He noted there were no restrictions on displaying the flag elsewhere in embassies.

No reports could be found of any Trump administration acknowledgement of Pride month in the other years of its term.

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