HARRISBURG (PennLive) – PennLive is reporting…June is Pride Month and an illegal flag displayed outside of Pennsylvania Capitol on Tuesday marked the occasion. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman chose to mark the beginning of this month celebrating LGBTQ culture and rights by once again, displaying a Pride flag on the balcony of his state Capitol office, despite knowing a law exists prohibiting it. A law passed in 2020 bars the display of any flag other than the American, Pennsylvania or POW/MIA flags on the exterior of the Pennsylvania Capitol. ”The LGBTQIA+ flags that I fly from my office are technically breaking a law,” he said in a statement. “Yet, Pennsylvania law does not explicitly protect the LGBTQIA+ community from discrimination. This must change. We must never stop pushing for equal protection under the law in Pennsylvania and across the country.” Fetterman’s flag was confiscated by Department of General Services employees over the lunch hour while staffers were at lunch, said Christina Kauffman, Fetterman’s spokeswoman.
Kauffman said Lt. Gov. Fetterman has made it clear he intends to replace it with another one. “I can’t say I am surprised, but I am deeply disappointed that the flags were removed, on the literal start of Pride Month,” Fetterman said in a statement. “But what’s even more disappointing and angering is that the Republicans in Pennsylvania can quickly come up with legislation to take down the flags, but not to ensure that Pennsylvania law explicitly protects the LGBTQIA+ community from discrimination.” The 2020 flag banning law was initiated by House Republicans in response to the lieutenant governor’s displaying of flags on his balcony directly over the main entrance to the Capitol promoting LGBTQIA+ rights and recreational marijuana legalization. The Republicans said at the time the flag ban is intended to “develop decorum and uniformity for what is displayed at the Capitol.” Fetterman tweeted back then that he found it “kinda flattering that they changed Pennsylvania law just for me.”
