Several U.S. embassies around the world are displaying rainbow flags on flagpoles, after reportedly disregarding the State Department’s directive not to display the flags during Pride Month.
Ambassadors and diplomats posted overseas have reportedly decided to ignore the State Department’s instructions, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
“This is a category one insurrection,” one diplomat who wished to remain anonymous told WaPo, responding to the wave of disobedience to the State Department’s rule.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
DailyCaller reports: The U.S. embassies in Seoul, South Korea, and Chennai, India, have prominently displayed rainbow flags on the sides of their buildings for Pride Month, according to the report.
The embassy in New Delhi also bypassed the State Department’s instruction by decorating its building with rainbow lights for the month-long celebration.
The chief diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile, raised the rainbow flag to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on May 17, seen in a video posted on the embassy’s website.
The embassy in Vienna flew a rainbow flag below the American flag on a pole hanging from the side of the embassy’s outer wall, as shown on its website.
Several U.S. diplomats in Jerusalem tweeted photos of themselves at local pride events, including a March for Pride and Tolerance, WaPo reported.
The U.S. ambassador to Nepal, Randy Berry, tweeted a picture of himself surrounded by embassy employees holding up rainbow letters that read “PRIDE.”
Under the Obama administration, open permission was given to fly rainbow flags for pride celebrations at U.S. embassy buildings as long as the rainbow flags were smaller and hung lower than the American flag, according to WaPo.
President Donald Trump’s State Department has denied requests to fly rainbow flags on embassy flagpoles during June, though displaying the flag on walls of the embassy or in other ways is permissible, according to NBC News.
