Free Republic

A growing rift has emerged among some in the LGBTQ+ community over the upstart “Progress Flag” — ripping it as “ugly,” “dumb” and a “monstrosity.” The traditional “Rainbow Pride” banner incorporates red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet displayed along six horizontal bars. The 2018 “Progress Flag,” — a creation of artist Daniel Quasar, added a curious mosaic of new colors — black, brown, pink, light blue and white, plastered into a triangle overlapping the original pride design. The black and brown bars are said to reflect “marginalized LBGT communities of color, community members lost to HIV/AIDS, and those currently...

NEW YORK – An unidentified man burned pride flags hanging in front of a Columbia University building Tuesday, police said. The incident occurred at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday in front of 2910 Broadway at Columbia University, police said. Police say surveillance video shows the individual approached a banner with multiple pride flags hanging from the college and lit them on fire before fleeing in an unknown direction. In a statement, Columbia University said the school sent out an alert to their campus community stating that public safety was notified by an affiliate that two LGBTQIA+ flags were discovered removed and damaged...

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, on Friday said he has been lied to by law enforcement about the facts around Tuesday's Uvalde school shooting, and said he was 'livid'. 'I was misled,' Abbott said on Friday 'I am livid about what happened. I was on this very stage two days ago, and I was telling the public information that had been told to me in a room just a few yards from where we are write now. 'I wrote hand notes in sequential order. 'When I came out on that stage and told the public what happened, it was...

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has apparently unveiled a new version of the LGBTQ+ pride flag for International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT) this week. Taking to Twitter, the leftist London Mayor wrote on Tuesday: “Today on #IDAHOBIT, I want to make clear that homophobia, biphobia and transphobia have no place in our city and send a message of solidarity to all LGBTQ+ communities around the world. We have to make sure that the progress of the past decades isn’t reversed.”

BOSTON (AP) — The Satanic Temple is requesting to fly a flag over Boston City Hall after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the city violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist seeking to fly a Christian flag outside the downtown building. The Salem-based group tweeted a request filed Tuesday with the city property management department to raise a flag marking “Satanic Appreciation Week” from July 23-29. Mayor Michelle Wu’s office declined to comment on the group’s request other than to say it’s reviewing the high court’s decision while also evaluating its flag-raising program. Lucien Greaves,...

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled that a Buffalo construction company owner is not violating city ordinances by flying a large Trump flag from a crane. The Monday ruling reverses the city of Buffalo’s determination that Jay Johnson’s 30-by-50 foot flag reading “TRUMP 2020 Keep America Great” violated its ordinances on size restrictions and the attaching of signs to equipment. According to the ruling, the size restriction ordinance does not apply to “non-commercial” signs, while restrictions on attaching signs to equipment effectively deny Johnson’s free speech rights. “We reverse because (1) a provision of the ordinance prohibiting advertising or...

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a program of the city of Boston that allows outside groups to fly flags at city hall must permit the flying of flag with a cross that a camp referred to as a "Christian flag." The question before the court was whether flying the flag as part of a government program was considered government speech if the flag belonged to a private organization, in this case, Camp Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled that it is not. "We conclude that, on balance, Boston did not make the raising and flying of private groups’ flags a...

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that the city of Boston, Massachusetts wrongly banned Christian flags from a community flag program. Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver presented oral argument in January to the U.S. Supreme Court in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, arguing that the City of Boston violated the Constitution by censoring a Christian flag in a public forum open to “all applicants” merely because the application referred to it as a “Christian flag.” There are three flagpoles outside City Hall that fly the U.S., Massachusetts and Boston flags, plus a fourth flag on Congress Street, which...

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that the city of Boston violated the Constitution when it refused to let a local organization fly a Christian flag in front of city hall. While the case had religious overtones, the decision was fundamentally about free speech rights. The court said the city created a public forum, open to call comers, when it allowed organizations to use a flagpole in front of City Hall for commemorative events. Denying the same treatment for the Christian flag was a violation of free expression, the court said. The ruling was a victory for a group...

VIDEO AT LINK Monday marks the 46th anniversary of the “greatest play in baseball” by Chicago Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday who’s quick thinking stopped a protester from burning an American flag on the field. As the Cubs faced the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on April 25, 1976, a pair of protesters ran out onto the field in the bottom of the fourth inning with an American flag doused in lighter fluid. The pair tried to light the flag on fire using matches they brought for the purpose, but Marine Corps veteran and Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday wasn’t having...

Oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil will not allow the traditional LGBTQ rights flag to be flown outside its offices during Pride month in June, a move the company said is not meant to "diminish" its diversity commitment. Updated company guidance, which was seen by Bloomberg News, bans "external position flags" such as those used for gay pride or Black Lives Matter occasions. In a statement shared with Newsweek, Tracey Gunnlaugsson, vice president of human resources at Exxon Mobil, said the "updated flag protocol is intended to clarify the use of the ExxonMobil branded company flag and not intended to...

The Duchess of Sussex suffered an awkward gaffe over the weekend after she was photographed painting the Ukrainian flag upside down. In images released yesterday, Meghan Markle, 40, showed off her maternal side when she joined British Invictus Games families at a book reading on Sunday. In one snap, the mother-of-two could be seen carefully writing the word 'peace' onto a yellow and blue painting which, at first glance, appeared to be the Ukrainian flag. However in an embarrassing blunder, the Duchess had painted the flag upside-down, with her artwork incorrectly showing a horizontal band of yellow above a horizontal...

A Texas teacher agreed to pay a $90,000 settlement this week after he was sued by a student on First Amendment grounds for requiring a class to write out the Pledge of Allegiance. The incident occurred in 2017 when teacher Benjie Arnold asked his class to write out the Pledge of Allegiance or receive a failing grade. The student, Mari Oliver, wrote a squiggly line on the paper, and failed the assignment as a result. Oliver, who is Black, refused to write out the pledge over religious and social justice reasons relating to the treatment of Black Americans in the...

One could say Virginia Democrats got what they deserved for getting involved with the Lincoln Project in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. There was the incident last Friday when the Lincoln Project paid Democrat Party officials to dress as “white supremacists” and volunteer for Republican Glenn Youngkin’s campaign. The stunt failed, the perpetrators were identified, and Democrats were left with egg on their faces for trying to paint the leader of the most diverse statewide ticket in Virginia history as a racist. As noteworthy as that was, it did not change the trajectory of the race. The tide had turned...

Former Klein Oak High School student Mari Leigh Oliver, 22, won $90K after the Texas school settled a discrimination case before it went to trial The student claimed she was harassed by several teachers in 2017 after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance She said she felt 'we live in a country where there isn’t justice and freedom for all' and took offense to 'under God' and 'liberty and justice for all' Under Texas law, a student does not have to participate in the Pledge as long as a parent has submitted a written request. It is unclear...

Rochester, N.Y. — Rochester Police are asking the public to help them solve several crimes at a home on Park Avenue. Police are looking for information about a masked man they say jumped over the homeowners' back railing and approached their door with what appears to be a knife. His image was captured on doorbell camera video in January. This is the 12th time in less than a year the home has been threatened, and each time, it has only gotten worse. The homeowners have been in the house in 2001 and it wasn't until 2021 when all the attacks...

While most of us get ready to watch the fireworks on this day of “Independence”, we will either see or be wearing the American flag. Something has to be said about the flag we pledge allegiance to. While we all know of the flag pictured above, it has a meaning. It is known as a “Military Flag” or a “War Flag. It’s only to be used during times of war, or when the country is engaged in or is under military rule. Even if all the wars ended and all we had was the occupations left, this flag would...

The video is six minutes long. The title says it all.

A substitute teacher was caught on camera as he berated a teenage student who is the son of two California police officers for wearing a Blue Lives Matter American flag face mask in support of cops. Lucas Lillar, 13, who is in the eighth grade at Lyman Gilmore Middle School in Grass Valley, near Sacramento, was filmed by another pupil as the unidentified substitute teacher reprimanded him in front of the class for wearing the cloth mask, which features a thin blue line. 'That's not the American flag, that's the new confederacy flag,' the teacher can be heard yelling while...