Wisconsin Republican Representative Glenn Grothman was criticized after whining about Pride flags being flown over United States embassies during "gay month."
Speaking on an Intercessor For America (IFA) livestream last week, Grothman complained that "some congressmen who consider June ‘gay month,’ and they were flying the gay flag over American embassies."
Oddly, Grothman suggested that flying Pride flags would give foreign nations the impression that being gay makes people rich.
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Grothman said:
“You can imagine if you’re in a foreign country and you see the American embassy and you view it as representative of the American government, representative of the hope America is to the world, and you see the gay flag?"
"It's like,‘What’s that? Well, apparently, maybe that’s the secret to America’s wealth and prosperity.’ So it’s just absolutely a horrible thing.”
Grothman also had harsh words for the LGBTQI+ Data Equality Act, which the House passed last month. If passed by the Senate and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, the measure would require federal agencies to incorporate questions about sexual orientation and gender identity into surveys collecting demographic data.
Grothman called the bill "repugnant," failing to note that few federal surveys collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity, and none measure intersex populations and that the bill has been praised by the Congressional LGBTQI+ Equality Caucus for bringing the country "one step closer to obtaining a comprehensive and accurate picture of LGBTQI+ people and their experiences.”
He said:
“Can you imagine asking an eight-year-old child, ‘What is your sexual preference?’ But that’s what they want. I’m sure they want it to break down any innocence that the children have.”
“And we have to ask what they had in their mind and why they are doing it and why the Democrat Party is so owned by the gay lobby that every single Democrat voted to say, ‘Yes, we think a four-year-old, a six-year-old, an eight-year-old, a 10-year-old ought to be asked what their sexual preference is.’"
"It could be like a transgender or whatever. It’s just another example of the moral decline that is being encouraged by the government.”
Grothman was almost immediately criticized after he wrote a tweet thanking IFA for allowing him on the program to "defend religious freedom on the world stage."
Grothman is only the latest conservative to launch into a diatribe about Pride flags.
Last month, One America News (OAN) anchor Alison Steinberg was criticized after she threw a profanity-laced tantrum upon spotting a Pride flag in her hometown of Huntington Beach, California, a reliably conservative enclave located in Orange County.
Steinberg referred to the sight of the Pride flag as "f**king bulls**t" and suggested, oddly, that flying it makes a mockery of a city that remained open even as areas nationwide shut down to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In February, former President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon offered praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting that the United States should support Putin even as he proceeds with a violent invasion of Ukraine because he is "anti-woke" and has criticized his country's LGBTQ+ community for openly flying Pride flags.
While Putin has not explicitly banned Pride flag displays in his country, his administration's federal law "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values," also referred to in English-language media as the gay propaganda law, has sought to restrict content and behavior that would present homosexuality as a societal norm.
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