California school board’s Pride flag ban deserves praise, not outrage

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The Sonoma Valley school board that voted to take down the Pride flag from schools in the district was right to do so.

The students who led a peaceful protest might be commended for their activism — but they are wrong.

As The California Post reported, the board narrowly voted to remove the so-called “Progress Pride” version of the rainbow flag — the one with the chevron for the Black Lives Matter movement, transgenderism and alternative sexualities.

The board’s decision was not about the LGBTQ+ movement. It was about the Constitution.

Under the First Amendment, the only rules on public speech that are allowed are those that apply to everyone equally. 

What that means is that if the school displays one group’s flag, it also has to display the flag of every group that wants to be represented. 

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the city of Boston had to allow a private group fly a Christian flag at City Hall for an event, since it had already let dozens of other groups fly their flags.

The LGBTQ+ flag can still be flown on special occasions, such as during Pride month in June. 

It just cannot be flown year-round. 

The only flags that have that privilege are the US flag and the state of California flag.

And that is how it should be. The United States, and California, are all-inclusive labels.

We are not a nation defined by our separate identities.

Yes, it is important to show tolerance toward people with different sexualities, different genders and different colors.

But tolerance is already part of the national motto, E pluribus unum — “From many, one.”

Our other identities are the things that make us different from one another. Those differences have their place, and we can even celebrate them, but they are not the essence of who we are.

Nor is private sexual practice a public virtue — certainly not in a public school.

The student activists and community members who objected to the Pride flag being taken down claim that they feel vulnerable without the flag.

If the only way you can feel secure is by imposing your own symbol on other people, you are no longer a victim. You are a bully.

The Sonoma school board is not attacking the LGBTQ+ movement. Rather, it is defending our common civic identity and constitutional freedoms.

For that, it deserves to be commended. 

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