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I was the advisor for the LGBTQ alliance at my college and I remember the backlash and threats my students got when they brought an American flag with rainbow stripes to a campus event. (1 of 12) https://twitter.com/p0kes/status/1267230163521191936">https://twitter.com/p0kes/sta...
Students AND advisors from the Veterans club and some of the right-aligned student organizations on campus sent angry emails, along with pictures of military graves, and verbally intimidated my students around campus. (2)
Mediation of the issue (between the various club advisors) did not go well because not one of them would recognize my position that the flag was a symbol that belongs to every American and could be used to support or protest any cause for any reason, in any manner. (3)
At one point I told one of the angry advisors that my students were protected, that the Supreme Court has ruled on issues related to Freedom of Speech and Expression with regards to the flag. (4)
But it completely fell on deaf ears, and the administrator mediating the discussion provided virtually no support. The only response one advisor could provide was that it was disrespectful to them and their service to the country to alter the flag in any way. (5)
I remember telling the advisor that the discussion couldn’t continue until my students’ full right to fly the flag they chose to fly was acknowledged. If they wanted to talk to my students about their perspective or their beliefs about the flag, that had to happen first. (6)
I remember the horrified looks on my students faces when I told them the advisor declined to engage any further, and that while they were allowed to fly the flag, the other student groups did not want to hear about why they decided to fly it or what it meant to them. (7)
The entire ordeal, lack of any clear resolution or dialogue (aside from clear warnings that harassment of my students would not be tolerated), and the fact that the thin blue line version have appeared everywhere in the following years was clear proof to myself that (8)
the LGTBQ community and any other community under attack, in particular the black community, are considered exempt from the narrative that we’re all recognized as equal. The platitudes about the flag, the rituals and rules surrounding it, are smoke and mirrors. (9)
They’re a distraction from the fact that we are not welcome in our own home. I say this fully acknowledging as a white, cis, gay man, I have the least to complain about, and my voice is the last of those which needs to be elevated right now. (10)
But I wanted to share on the off chance that anyone in my community who supports what the thin blue line or the thing red line flags represent might see this and realize that the types of people who fly them don’t care about us. (11)
The flag in any array of colors is just a pretty facade to cover up everything underneath. (12)
I really messed up this thread the first time I tried to make it because I’m bad at Twitter! Sorry if it appears twice in anyone’s TL!
