Gov. Tony Evers raised the Progress Pride flag over the Wisconsin State Capitol for his eighth and final time Monday.
“We celebrate Pride Month because we know what it took to get here. We also know what is at stake,” said Evers, who delivered the remarks outside of the Capitol surrounded by advocates, lawmakers and others who held small pride flags in their hands.
Evers was the first governor in Wisconsin history to recognize the month by ordering the flag to fly over the Capitol building in 2019. He has done it each year since even when Republican lawmakers have criticized flags raised over government buildings, other than those representing the United States of America, prisoners of war and the state of Wisconsin, as divisive.
Evers said the flag is a message that the state “recognizes and celebrates our LGBTQ Wisconsinites — where they can be treated with dignity, treated with dignity and respect, and welcomed without fear of prosecution, judgement and discrimination.” The Progress Pride flag includes the LGBTQ rainbow colors as well as additional stripes that create a chevron to represent LGBTQ people of color, the transgender community and those who are living with and who have been lost to HIV/AIDS.
Evers took note of the national political moment and the hostility towards LGBTQ+ people and history from President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump’s second term has included an attempted ban on transgender people from serving in the military and the removal by the National Park Service of the Pride flag from the Stonewall Inn, a bar and national monument in New York City that was the location of riots that kickstarted the gay rights movement. In April, following a court decision, the administration agreed to restore the flag.
“There are those who want to revise and rewrite this important history so they can create a new story for our state and our country,” Evers said. “They want to pretend that trans and queer folks weren’t there at Stonewall. They tell trans folks and veterans willing to fight and die for our freedom — and theirs — that their patriotism isn’t wanted and never mattered.”
An appeals court ruled Monday that the military ban on trans service members is unconstitutional.
Pride Month originated in June 1970 as a way to honor the Stonewall riots, though it has become a wider celebration of LGBTQ+ people.
Evers’ proclaimed June “LGBTQ Pride Month” and signed an executive order authorizing state buildings and any jurisdiction of the state of Wisconsin to fly the Progress Pride flag during the month.
Evers also reiterated his promise to always fight for LGBTQ Wisconsinites. During his time as governor, he has vetoed bills sent to him by the Republican-led Legislature each session that have sought to impose restrictions on LGBTQ youth and adults.
Summer Strand, a parent of an LGBTQ child and the chairperson of the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC), said as she delivered remarks at the flag raising that Evers has been the “most crucial goalie,” stopping harmful bills from becoming law.
Some of the Republican-authored bills Evers mentioned in his speech that he said “hell no” to this year include a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a ban on tansgender students from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity and restrictions on the pronouns and names students can use in school.
“It’s simple, folks,” Evers said. “This type of legislation and harmful rhetoric pushes harm [to] mental health, threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites and emboldens anti-LGBTQ harassment, bullying and violence.” He added that he also has “no intention of repealing the ban on the outdated and dangerous practice of conversion therapy on kids.”
The Evers administration has defended a rule banning conversion therapy for not meeting the professional standards for mental health counselors in Wisconsin. The right-wing Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has sued to have the rule blocked.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who is the first openly gay person to hold the office, said it is “critical that we as state and local governments and as a community stand up to hate and discrimination.”
“My community, especially trans folks, are demonized and attacked every day in our country and around the world,” Rhodes-Conway said. “It’s one of the tried and true tools of authoritarianism. Authoritarians pick a minority that might be unfamiliar or misunderstood, and they use hate and division to distract us while they take away our rights and our freedoms and accumulate wealth through grift and corruption.”
Evers added that anyone listening should “know that no matter who you are, what you believe or you love or how you express your truest, most authentic self, you are family here. You belong here. You are welcome here. This is a place for you. Happy Pride Month, Wisconsin.”
