Wisconsin GOP Lawmaker Slams U.S. Embassies Flying Pride Flag
An anti-LGBTQ+ Republican representing Wisconsin slammed U.S. embassies for flying the Pride flag during June, saying that people in countries around the world will think gays are the reason for American prosperity.
"There are apparently some congressmen who consider June 'gay month,' and they were flying the gay flag over American embassies," griped Rep. Glenn Grothman on a livestream from right-wing religious organization Intercessors for America, LGBTQ Nation reported.
The congressman went on to say that Pride flags over U.S. embassies is "absolutely a horrible thing," imagining a scenario in which a citizen of a foreign country might look up to see the Pride flag and "view it as representative of the American government, representative of the hope America is to the world" — a scenario that, while possibly true for oppressed LGBTQ+ people in countries where being anything other than heterosexual and cisgender is considered criminal, he seemed to abhor.
"It's like, 'What's that?'" Grothman went on to say, imagining the thoughts of his theoretical foreign citizen. "'Well, apparently, maybe that's the secret to America's wealth and prosperity.'"
The congressman went on to attack the LGBTQI+ Data Equality Act, a bill that has been passed by the House and "would require over 100 federal agencies to assess their survey methods to see if they should be asking about LGBTQ identities," the news site detailed.
In his criticism, Grothman defaulted to the dubious narrative that governmental agencies would ask children questions having to do with sexuality.
"Can you imagine asking an 8-year-old child, 'What is your sexual preference?'" Grothman said on the livestream, going on to call the bill "another example of the moral decline that is being encouraged by the government" and suggesting that Democrats intend "to break down any innocence that the children have."
Ironically, Grothman was one of a number of lawmakers who drew criticism for delivering speeches while standing in front of the flag for a known anti-government extremist group while at an official GOP function in Wisconsin earlier this year.
Grothman and others delivered their addresses before the flag of a "government ideology that advocates for the violent overthrow of American democracy" in January, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.
The event was a meeting of the Winnebago County Republican Party, the Examiner detailed. At least six GOP officeholders and candidates spoke while standing in front of the flag for the Three Percenters, which the newspaper described as a "subsection of the militia movement that had adherents involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol."
"A few of the ideology's followers were involved in a 2020 kidnapping plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer," the article added.
Other flags the six speakers at the Republican event spoke in front of included "two Trump 2024 flags and the pro-police Blue Lives Matter flag," the Examiner detailed, while the "actual American flag and Wisconsin state flag [were] set aside in the corner near a cardboard cutout of former President Donald Trump."
Grothman declined to provide comment for the Examiner's story, the newspaper said.