Banning confederate flags on bases also banned other flags

[amberlyrose]

There’s a movement building to reverse DoD’s policy on LGBTQ pride flag and other banners

"The policy, written in response to pressure to ban the Confederate flag across all DoD property, is written in such a way that flags other than allied country, state and unit flags are unauthorized outside of private housing rooms and vehicles, targeting service members who might display a favored sport’s team’s ― as well as one representing LGBTQ pride or that of support of a Native American tribe, as the lawmakers argued."

"Despite the motivation for its creation, Esper’s memo does not explicitly ban the Confederate flag, as the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard have done using their own authorities."


www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/07/31/theres-a-movement-building-to-reverse-dods-policy-on-lgbtq-pride-flag-and-other-banners/

[VillainV]

I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday. Honestly, in 18 years of military service, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a confederate flag on base that wasn’t part of a state flag or on someone’s vehicle. I’ve definitely seen the LGBTQ flag as part of pride month celebrations and on vehicles but don’t think I’ve seen it other than that. I also, for the record, think it’s pretty shitty to put the LGBTQ flag in the same category as the confederate flag.

It sounds like the ban is not meant to include symbols on private vehicles? People would lose their shit if they had to remove confederate flags from their vehicles (bumper and window stickers, etc). But the article makes a point that we don’t allow Nazi flags, any we can easily consider the confederate flag to be just as much of a symbol of hatred that it deserves a complete ban.

It will be interesting to see where the next administration and SecDef go with this. I think most younger service members would support this change.

[irishbride2]

Even if you ignore the racist side of the flag (wtf) it’s still a flag of a group who committed treason and fought against the US. How in earth is it not against military rules to support treason?!?! I will never understand this.

[VillainV]

Dec 15, 2020 17:21:23 GMT -5 irishbride2 said:

Even if you ignore the racist side of the flag (wtf) it’s still a flag of a group who committed treason and fought against the US. How in earth is it not against military rules to support treason?!?! I will never understand this.

Best I can figure, people think fighting for your deeply held beliefs isn’t really the “bad” kind of treason. They compare it with the same kind of treason our founding fathers committed against the King. These same people have been fed the lies about “states rights” and don’t believe that the Civil War was actually about preserving the right to enslave human beings. There’s a lot of mental gymnastics that goes into this thought process.

Once we, as a country, recognize this symbol for what it really is, it follows that people should want to ban it.

[gretchenindisguise]

Dec 15, 2020 16:51:19 GMT -5 VillainV said:

I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday. Honestly, in 18 years of military service, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a confederate flag on base that wasn’t part of a state flag or on someone’s vehicle. I’ve definitely seen the LGBTQ flag as part of pride month celebrations and on vehicles but don’t think I’ve seen it other than that. I also, for the record, think it’s pretty shitty to put the LGBTQ flag in the same category as the confederate flag.

It sounds like the ban is not meant to include symbols on private vehicles? People would lose their shit if they had to remove confederate flags from their vehicles (bumper and window stickers, etc). But the article makes a point that we don’t allow Nazi flags, any we can easily consider the confederate flag to be just as much of a symbol of hatred that it deserves a complete ban.

It will be interesting to see where the next administration and SecDef go with this. I think most younger service members would support this change.

Within the last 12 months there was one of the obnoxiously big ones on the back of someone's truck that lived in barracks of my former base. It was kind of shocking to see it.

[Michelle]

Dec 15, 2020 17:21:23 GMT -5 irishbride2 said:

Even if you ignore the racist side of the flag (wtf) it’s still a flag of a group who committed treason and fought against the US. How in earth is it not against military rules to support treason?!?! I will never understand this.

sarcasm:

Because a bunch of the people who still do this shit grew up watching the Dukes of Hazzard and think that the flag represents, "Just some good ole boys, never meanin' no harm." 

/sarcasm