U.S. Embassies Can Fly LGBTQ+ Pride Flags Again Under Biden
It’s a new day for equality as Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken confirmed that the Biden administration will recommit to LGBTQ+ rights.
In a Tuesday confirmation hearing, Blinken unveiled a shortlist of proposals the incoming administration will enact to promote queer and transgender rights in the United States and abroad. Among those pledges, he claimed that Biden’s State Department will reverse Trump-era bans on U.S. embassies flying rainbow flags in honor of Pride month. A July 2020 memo from former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper regarding pro-LGBTQ+ displays at military bases likened them to Confederate flags, notorious symbols of white supremacy.
According to CNN, Blinken also said the Biden White House will appoint a Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons. The position was created by Barack Obama in 2015, but after inaugural appointee Randy Berry vacated the post in the early days of Trump’s presidency, it was not refilled.
Blinken claimed that appointing a new envoy is “a matter, I think, of some real urgency” following a surge in violence against LGBTQ+ people around the world during Trump’s four years in office. According to a recent report from the advocacy group Transrespect Versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT), 350 transgender people were murdered globally between October 2019 and September 2020, marking a 6% increase from the previous year. 44 trans people were killed in the U.S. alone in 2020, a record number.
https://www.them.us/story/us-embassies-lgbtq-pride-flags-under-biden