As LGBTQ individuals acquire more exposure and acceptance in American society, rainbow pride flags are becoming as frequent on businesses in some major cities as help wanted posters.
The widespread use of the long-standing emblem of equality and unity may have contributed to the national outpouring of grief and shock following Friday’s fatal shooting of a California shop owner who was purportedly targeted because she had a Pride flag flying outside her establishment.
Battle Over the Pride Flag: Right-Wing Backlash
However, at the same time that the Pride flag has become widely used, right-wing online personalities and conservative media have been defaming the emblem, which was first used at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day march in San Francisco.
The far right has repeatedly associated the flag with the decades-old stereotype, which has recently experienced a rebirth, that connects gay and transgender persons to child abusers who wish to groom or sexualize youngsters.
Right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh said in March to his 2.4 million followers on X, then known as Twitter, that the pride flag did not merit our respect or deference.
Nearly all of modern society’s most heinous assaults on children, customs, and common sense take place beneath the repulsive pride flag.
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Pride Flag Battles Amidst Rising Anti-LGBTQ Laws
The far-right X account LibsOfTikTok is operated by Chaya Raichik, who has often incited debates among her roughly 2.5 million followers that appear to target the Pride flag.
A record number of anti-LGBTQ measures have been submitted in state legislatures this year, many of which would restrict the production of LGBTQ-related art and the instruction of queer problems and identities in schools.
These moves to outlaw the Pride flag come at the same time. According to a count by the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 490 anti-LGBTQ legislation have been presented in legislatures this year, 78 of which have become laws.
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