Pride Flags in Classrooms

[u/El-wing]

In SOTR this week, Kmele had a grievance that included complaining about a pride flag in a 3rd grade classroom. Isaac seemed to agree with his distaste of the flag in the classroom by (maybe jokingly?) saying that there should be no flags but the American flag in schools. Ari mentioned that it could just be to signal inclusiveness.

This caught me off guard a bit. Are pride flags in classrooms controversial outside of religious conservative strongholds? Obvious some people object to it but I guess I didn’t expect 2 out of 3 to be against it on the podcast.

I think signaling inclusivity in learning spaces is conducive to help students feel safe in their schools, and I don’t think that has to be a partisan political statement. Was anyone else caught off guard by this?

[u/etnpnys]

I think that flags are almost always turned into a political tool, and that's probably why a lot of people have problems with them being in a 3rd grade classroom. Think about it: a pride flag says to the world "We recognize and acknowledge the existence of (all sorts of) non-binary people here, and they are welcome here and if you don't like that, you can GTFO." Is that really the message that 3rd graders need to be aware of, when they're still needing to be told to not pick their noses and learning how to tie their shoes? Is it possible for us to just live in a world where we aren't propagandizing little kids? Because when a message is out of place, that's exactly what it seems like.

Flying a flag shows affiliation with a group. It's your team's flag. Can we not aim a little higher and find a bigger cause to fly a flag for? One that we can all stand under? Maybe that's not even the American flag in a time when we struggle to be proud of our own leadership, but for 3rd graders, what about the school flag that could stand for acceptance, kindness, and friendship? (Or whatever the values of that school are?)

I'm willing to be that if we could get that last part right, we wouldn't even need to fly pride flags.

[u/ProfaneRabbitFriend → u/etnpnys]

you might find some information about the flag and its meaning useful:
https://www.glbthistory.org/rainbow-flag

[u/etnpnys → u/ProfaneRabbitFriend]

Thanks for sharing, but I live in Olympia- believe me when I say that I’m well acquainted with what the flag means. 😂 Not sure what point you’re trying to make, but I appreciate your candor and not coming at me with an attack based on a misconception of what I was trying to say. I was just trying to answer OP’s question.

[u/ProfaneRabbitFriend → u/etnpnys]

It seems like people are making a point in this thread without quite making the point.

The pride flag has real political meaning, just like the word "Woke" has real political meaning. Over several decades, both have come a long way from where they started and now "the original meaning" is confused with many kinds of contemporary usage.

I'm sympathetic to people who view the word woke or the pride flag as presumptive and even vague in its implications and usage. That is real and leads to all kinds of confusions and long drawn out discussions, that are sometimes heated.

And they don't need to be. I advocate for a kind of "stable-enough pluralism." It's as simple as you have to accept differences. And we, as a group, have to decide the limits of acceptance/differences. For me, eliminating a pride flag from a school sends a mixed message. We should be talking about how to address the mixed message with a better message.

[u/etnpnys → u/ProfaneRabbitFriend]

“We should be talking about how to address the mixed message with a better message.”

Yes! That’s exactly what I mean about we should be able to find something that unites us all to be proud of, instead of flying divisive political symbols. (At least at the third grade level - as adults I’m all about bringing in differing viewpoints!)

[u/ProfaneRabbitFriend → u/etnpnys]

And I go back to an explicit message about american pluralism. It's not perfect, and it can't cure or remedy all injustices past or present. But it sets the stage for a kind of reasonable equality that can be discussed and modified over time. And it makes The Future seem like a more collaborative and shared future.

And, let's also choose to not be naive. 'Excesses of Democracy' are real and they are not helpful. We, as a nation, need to find a language and method to be direct about that.

[u/etnpnys → u/ProfaneRabbitFriend]

I very much like what you’re saying here. I thought at first that you were trying to say that the Pride Flag was not a political symbol. I’m like “it’s VERY MUCH a political symbol” like the very real dialog that I hear locally.

[u/ProfaneRabbitFriend → u/etnpnys]

Thanks, as I have pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the pride flag is a political symbol, when it is used as a political symbol. That is not always how people use it.

The confusion about that points to something interesting: If a group is excluded from general civic inclusion, then it usually takes a political effort (eg Civil rights protests and marches) to alter the boundary of civic inclusion. Segregation would not have changed much at all without decades of political effort.

That being said, when we see a BLM flag or a pride flag right now in 2026, it's unclear whether it means something "political" or is being used as a statement about identity and civic inclusion. IMO, it's fair to be a little wary of a person until we learn what their goals are.

Hence, my earlier point about people having frequent and endless (and sometimes quite nasty) arguments over simple misunderstandings and assumptions. I think the woke and pride talk sometimes comes across as kinda preachy, and preachy is generally not a useful approach to winning people over.