There is a fight going on in the intermountain west. The states of Idaho and Utah, highly conservative states with the greatest concentration of Mormons in the world, have each passed state laws banning the flying of “non-official” flags at any government office.
The laws, while facially neutral, are intended to ban the relatively liberal capital cities of Boise and Salt Lake City from flying flags conservatives don’t like, such as the Gay Pride Flag, the Trans Pride Flag, or the Juneteenth Flag. For that matter, the laws are also banning the Organ Donor Flag, with an exception granted only for the POW/MIA Flag.
On Wednesday, Salt Lake City got around the ban on non-official flags by adopting official designs for the Salt Lake City Flag that incorporate the Salt Lake City Sego Lily design onto the Pride, Trans, and Juneteenth flags. Boise quickly followed suit, adopting Pride and the Organ Donor flag as official, but making no effort to include Trans or Juneteenth.
Hundreds showed up in Boise to support the city council’s adoption of Pride and rebuke of the state Attorney General, who had warned the mayor that the law banning unofficial flags would soon be given penalties by the legislature that had failed to include any enforcement mechanism for the ban.
But I want to focus on the couple dozen counter-protestors who showed up to proudly declare their opposition to flags that don’t stand for everybody by waving flags that stand just for straight people.
For example, this fine neckbeard, replete in his “Long Bunch Of Text On A T-Shirt That The Facebook MAGA Algorithm Showed Me That Says Something Bad About Liberals,” his 9mm pistol strapped to his waist in case one of those grandmas across the street in a Pride cape is secret Antifa infantry, tattoos down his arm that explain his particular pride in the original Germanic runes, and a black-and-white striped Straight Pride Flag.
“We’re just saying that we are proud of being heterosexuals,” [Bob Coggins] said. “I’m not over confronting, waving it in their face. I’m just standing here voicing my opinion and my love for being a straight male in Boise, Idaho.”
How brave, Bob. I can’t imagine all of the heartbreak, discrimination, ostracization, and legal opposition you’ve had to overcome to… oh, wait. I can. I’m a straight male from Boise, Idaho! And as I remember it, our bars were just called “bars,” our parades were just called “parades,” and our love affairs were never protested against, legislated against, or hunted by guys who looked like you looking for some queers to beat up for fun on a weekend.
Or take these ladies, upset with “advertising for sodomy” and disobeying state laws. I don’t know why the lady on the left is personally against oral and anal sex or why she doesn’t think that Straight Pride Flag to her right doesn’t also advocate for oral and anal sex—unless she’s convinced that only gay people commit sex acts the Bible referred to as “sodomy.” Besides, sodomy—as of 2022—is no longer against state law in Idaho. I don’t know, maybe they’re strictly into heterosexual intercourse. Sounds dull to me.
Like many counter protesters, Melodie Ostman said the Pride flag was divisive and the mayor should follow the new state law, adding: “for me personally, it’s about government spaces trying to remain neutral and supporting and being a voice for everyone, not just a select few.”
The reason there even has to be a Pride movement, or a Black Lives Matter movement, is because the red-white-and-blue flag historically has not been “trying to remain neutral and supporting and being a voice for everyone, not just a select few.”
I’ve written before how white supremacy and heteronormativity are, in essence, inferiority complexes. To these people, recognizing and uplifting any group that has been historically marginalized is equal to ignoring and downgrading the group that did the marginalizing. It’s a zero-sum game. There can’t be “pro-gay” without “anti-straight.” There can’t be “pro-Black” without “anti-white.”
“You’re a bunch of fricking commies breaking the law,” the flag opponent yelled. “You think gay people are the only people who are entitled to anything?”
Yes, I believe it was Josef Stalin who started all of this support for gay pride. Or maybe it was Chairman Mao. The communists in Russia and China were well known proponents of gay rights… on Bizarro Earth where everything is the opposite.
The other thing I notice about the homophobes, and fascists in general, is the disdain for color. Their Straight Pride Flag is black and white. Their protest signs are black and white. They reduce Old Glory’s red-white-and-blue down to just black and white, occasionally with a blue stripe for the cops.
Then there’s the worship of death. The firearms. The black-and-white Punisher skulls. The threats in their popular t-shirts, like veiled ones in “If you won’t stand behind our troops, please stand in front of them” or “If you’re going to burn our flag, wrap yourself in it first,” or the direct ones like “Journalist. Tree. Rope.” or “Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong.”
Their love of America is one of domination and retribution. Their patriotism is the feeling of security derived from being protected by their membership in the toughest gang. Their pride is in feeling superior to others.
By contrast, look at these colorful Pride supporters. These are the people who embody what America is supposed to be: welcoming of all people, proud of our strength in diversity.
The fight for flags in Boise and Salt Lake City is just a microcosm of the national fight brought on by Trumpism against the further evolution of our society. You hear the same gaslighting rhetoric, that somehow recognition of gay, trans, minority, non-Christian, and female struggles is demeaning to straight cisgender white Christian men, that seeking to include marginalized groups is elevating them above others. Like I said, it’s an inferiority complex in its believers that without the support of systems that favor straight cisgender white Christian men, they will be unable to compete.
