Yes, the government spending bill bans flying pride flags over U.S. embassies

On Saturday, March 23, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills into law, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown. 

It took lawmakers nearly six months into the current budget year to get over the finish line on government funding, the process slowed by conservatives in the House of Representatives who pushed for more policy mandates and steeper spending cuts than a Democratic-led Senate or White House would consider. The impasse required several short-term spending bills to keep government agencies funded.

In the days after the government spending bill was signed into law, some viral social media posts and news headlines claimed a provision within it bans U.S. embassies from flying pride flags. 

THE QUESTION

Does the government spending bill ban U.S. embassies from flying pride flags?

THE SOURCES

• Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024
• U.S. Department of State
• Congressional Equality Caucus
• Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group
• White House spokesperson

THE ANSWER

Yes, a provision in the spending bill bans pride flags from flying over U.S. embassies. But it doesn’t limit pride flag displays elsewhere on embassy grounds. 

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WHAT WE FOUND

A provision in the $1.2 trillion spending package that Biden signed into law effectively bans LGBTQ+ pride flags from flying over U.S. embassies. The provision is not an all-out ban on pride flags because it only limits the flags that can be flown above embassies and does not address other locations on embassy grounds.

A clause within the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 specifies which flags can be displayed “over a facility of the United States Department of State.” U.S. embassies are State Department facilities.

The Congressional Equality Caucus called the provision a “restriction on displaying or flying pride flags over State Department facilities.” 

According to the bill text, “none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended to fly or display a flag over a facility of the United States Department of State,” apart from those in a list of exceptions. The LGBTQ+ pride flag is not on that list.

In other words, only a select list of flags can be flown over Department of State facilities such as embassies. 

That list includes: the United States flag; Foreign Service flag; POW/MIA flag; Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag; flag of a state, insular area, or the District of Columbia at domestic locations; flag of an Indian Tribal government; official branded flag of a United States agency; or a sovereign flag of other countries. 

While the spending package’s provision does effectively restrict pride flags from flying above embassies, it doesn’t equate to an all-out ban on pride flag displays.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an LBGTQ+ advocacy group, said the “limited provision…would continue to allow LGBTQ+ pride flags to be present in almost all cases at embassies except being flown over the exterior of the building.” 

“It poses absolutely no limits to other displays of a pride flag, hosting LGBTQ+ events or embassy employees’ ability to display pride flags in their work spaces,” the HRC said. 

The White House has described the spending package as a “compromise,” and a spokesperson told VERIFY President Biden opposes the pride flag policy and is working with Congress to “find an opportunity to repeal it.”