The measure permits only certain flags to be flown over US embassies, including the US flag, US Foreign Service flag, POW/MIA flag, Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag, flag of a state, “insular area” or DC, Indian tribal government flag, the official branded flag of a US agency, and the sovereign flag of another nation.
I realize the article is about the white house specifically pushing back, but my sentiment is directed more at the entire democratic party. They had control of House, Senate, and the Oval Office for 2 years and didn’t seem to put much effort into protecting lgbt people. What I see is usually more posturing and virtue signalling coming from them. I want them to defend us with at least the ferocity republicans attack us. The right will seemingly stop at nothing to take our rights away and the Dems only ever put forth token efforts to save them. They need to wise up and start playing just as dirty as the right or we will continue our slide into fascism and us trans folk will be the first ones they send off to the gas chambers.
I completely understand the frustration with Congress. The main obstacle there is the filibuster in the Senate, and the simple fact of the matter is that there was zero chance Manchin and Sinema would ever be willing to kill the filibuster over something like the Equality Act (something which Biden has routinely urged Congress to pass, I’d add).
At the end of the day, there’s really only so much that can be done given the structure of the American government. The federal government’s authority to interfere with state laws is quite limited, particularly under this Supreme Court, and structural biases in the government make it much much easier for Republicans to stop something than it is for Democrats to do something, all while Republican state governments can act freely at the level of their state. Oftentimes, there’s isn’t some magical hidden ‘play dirty’ lever that Democrats could easily pull but refuse to. Short of simply holding a gun up to his face, Biden literally could not make Manchin vote any particular way (and I’m sure he wanted to several times). Despite that, the Respect for Marriage Act was still a genuinely strong legislative achievement.
And to be clear, I don’t mean to invalidate your frustration or say that any of this situation is right. But ultimately, there are reasons the mess is the way it is, and if we want to move things in a positive direction, we have to understand the rules and know what the available moves actually are.
Lastly, I’d add that the Biden White House, particularly the DoJ, has genuinely done quite a lot in order to enforce LGBT protections wherever they legally can, including routinely interpreting discrimination by sex to be inclusive of gender identity. Here’s a general timeline:
https://www.hrc.org/resources/president-bidens-pro-lgbtq-timeline