In a reversal of Trump-era policy, President Joe Biden's Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, authorized U.S. embassies worldwide to fly the rainbow flag in a show of solidarity with LGBTQ Americans. Blinken said the flags would be flown throughout the 2021 Pride season.
Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a fierce proponent of a federal ban on same-sex marriage during his time in Congress, railed against the policy change in an interview with far-right Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
Watch below.
Gingrich said:
"Every idiotic thing that the Biden administration's done in the first 100 days, whether it's threatening everybody who believes in the Second Amendment or if it's attacking anybody who believes in right to life, or it is attacking people of traditional values who are appalled that this administration would fly the gay flag at American embassies all over the world ... It's almost like they have a checklist of 'What can we do that will really, truly infuriate traditional Americans?'"
He continued:
"I couldn't imagine any administration which had been this deliberately anti-American and this deliberately committed to infuriating the majority of the American people."
LGBTQ people have existed for as long as there have been humans, and they've existed in America since its inception. Nevertheless, Republicans like Gingrich still paint LGBTQ people in opposition to so-called "traditional values," and as inherently "anti-American."
His homophobic diatribe was quickly rebuked by social media users.
They pointed out Gingrich's own hypocrisy.
Gingrich was a prominent proponent of the Defense of Marriage Act, which federally banned same-sex marriage.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram