The only colors flying over U.S. embassies this month are red, white and blue, as the Trump administration bans rainbow flags and other LGBT Pride celebrations for the second consecutive June.
According to an internal memo reviewed by The Daily Wire, Secretary of State Marco Rubio restricted department personnel from “conducting or participating in any public diplomacy outreach or representational activity” associated with calendar observances that were not either official U.S. holidays or recognized by a presidential proclamation.
The directive bolsters the State Department’s “One Flag Policy” adopted in January 2025, which limits the flags that may be flown at U.S. facilities around the world to the U.S. flag, the POW/MIA flag, and the Hostages and Wrongful Detainees flag.
“The flag of the United States of America united all Americans under the universal principles of justice, liberty, and democracy,” the policy declared. “These values, which are the bedrock of our great country, are shared by all American citizens, past and present.”
This policy embodies a sharp contrast to the Biden administration’s State Department, in which Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave embassies “blanket written authorization … to display the Pride flag on the external-facing flagpole, for the duration of the 2021 Pride season.”
In 2022, U.S. embassies in at least 98 countries acknowledged or celebrated Pride Month, The Washington Stand found. Nearly 30 U.S. embassies flew the Pride flag or the Progress Pride flag, including in the Vatican. In one incident, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry called in the Charge d’Affaires of the American embassy in Kuwait to scold him for social media posts “in support of homosexuality” which offended “the laws and regulations in force in Kuwait.”
The rainbow revelry of LGBT Pride in U.S. embassies under the Biden administration mirrored President Biden’s “whole-of-government initiative” to advance the LGBT+ agenda, as FRC experts documented in part in a white paper, “Exporting LGBT Ideology: The Biden Administration’s Foreign Policy Priority.” Even domestically, by 2024, the Biden administration observed the accelerating presidential race by attending no less than 200 Pride parades in the month of June.
The second Trump administration, however, has pumped the brakes on the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government” promotion of the LGBT agenda with full-fledged skepticism. Instead, the Trump administration has prioritized blocking gender transition procedures for minors, protecting women’s sports, and restoring Title IX to its original purpose.
In 2025, President Trump issued no proclamation celebrating Pride Month, and he has refrained from doing so this year as well. When asked whether the White House would be observing Pride Month this June, a spokesperson replied, “We celebrate all Americans every day.”
And corporate America also seems to be increasingly distancing itself from Pride Month observances. According to a report from NPR, corporate sponsorship for 2026 Pride Month events is declining even further, falling by an estimated 60% to 70% from years past.
According to ProCapitas, many Pride Month events are now shifting from large-scale corporate-funded initiatives to smaller-scale, “community-driven” events.
For example, Tampa Pride in Florida has fully suspended all events for 2026, citing an absence of funding due to the state’s denial of grants to event organizers. And Fort Myers Pride in Florida is unlikely to host events this year. Arlington Pride in Texas also cancelled major events.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Pride, has moved events to larger venues and plan to charge admission fees to cover costs. And several Democrat-controlled cities such as Boston and Houston are planning larger Pride Month events than in years past.
