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The Trump administration has reaffirmed its “One Flag Policy”, restricting Pride Month observances at US embassies and marking a continued departure from Biden-era LGBT advocacy.

The only stripes flying over US embassies this month will be the Stars and Stripes, as the Trump administration cracks down on rainbow flags and other LGBT Pride celebrations for the second consecutive June.

In an internal memo reviewed by The Daily Wire, Secretary of State Marco Rubio forbade department personnel from “conducting or participating in any public diplomacy outreach or representational activity” related to calendar observances that were not either official US holidays or recognised by a presidential proclamation.

The “One Flag Policy”

The directive reinforces the State Department’s “One Flag Policy” adopted in January 2025, which limits the flags that may be flown at US facilities around the world to the US flag, the POW/MIA flag, and the Hostages and Wrongful Detainees flag.

“The flag of the United States of America united all Americans under the universal principles of justice, liberty, and democracy,” the policy declared. “These values, which are the bedrock of our great country, are shared by all American citizens, past and present.”

This policy posed a sharp contrast to the Biden administration’s State Department, in which Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave embassies “blanket written authorisation … to display the Pride flag on the external-facing flagpole, for the duration of the 2021 Pride season.”

In 2022, US embassies in at least 98 countries acknowledged or celebrated Pride Month, The Washington Stand found. Nearly 30 US embassies flew the Pride flag or the Progress Pride flag, including in the Vatican. In one incident, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry called in the Charge d’Affaires of the American embassy in Kuwait to scold him for social media posts “in support of homosexuality” which offended “the laws and regulations in force in Kuwait.”

Biden’s Whole-of-Government LGBT Agenda

The rainbow bacchanalia of LGBT Pride in US embassies under the Biden administration reflected President Biden’s “whole-of-government initiative” to advance the LGBT+ agenda, as FRC experts documented in part in a white paper, “Exporting LGBT Ideology: The Biden Administration’s Foreign Policy Priority.” Even domestically, by 2024, the Biden administration observed the accelerating presidential race by attending no less than 200 Pride parades in the month of June.

“Pride is both a jubilant communal celebration of visibility and a personal celebration of self-worth and dignity,” gushed Biden in his 2021 LGBTQ+ Pride Month proclamation. “This Pride Month, we recognise the valuable contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals across America, and we reaffirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with LGBTQ+ Americans in their ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice.”

President Biden backed up this attitude with a series of executive orders. Most notably, on his first day in office (Executive Order 13985), Biden directed his administration to “pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of colour and others who have been historically underserved, marginalised, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality. Affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”

Two years later, Biden issued another executive order, “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government” (Executive Order 14091), which directed every agency to deploy “an Agency Equity Team within their respective agencies to coordinate the implementation of equity initiatives.” The order defined “equity” to include “consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair, just, and impartial manner, including individuals who belong to communities that often have been denied such treatment, such as … LGBTQI+ persons.”

A Sharp Shift in Federal Priorities Under Trump

Like Biden’s earlier Pride proclamation, this order advanced the narrative that people who identify as same-sex-attracted or transgender comprise a community that has experienced systemic injustice and discrimination, akin to the historical racial segregation that discriminated against black Americans. However, the Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to identify people who identify as LGBT as such a “protected class.”

The same executive order also directed agency heads to “support ongoing implementation of a comprehensive equity strategy,” cooperate with the Office of Management and Budget’s work “embedding equity into government-wide processes,” and “comprehensively use their respective civil rights authorities and offices to prevent and address discrimination and advance equity for all, including to increase the effects of civil rights enforcement and to increase public awareness of civil rights principles.”

However, the second Trump administration has replaced the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government” promotion of the LGBT agenda with “whole-of-government” scepticism. The Trump administration has worked to dislodge gender transition procedures for minors, protect women’s sports, and restore Title IX to its original purpose.

In 2025, President Trump issued no proclamation celebrating Pride Month, and he has not done so this year either.

On the contrary, when asked whether the White House would be observing Pride Month this June, a spokesperson replied, “We celebrate all Americans every day.”

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Republished with thanks to The Washington Stand. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.