A few days back, Gov. Jeff Landry sent out an executive order on flags that nobody seemed to take much note of.
You can see the whole thing here, but in pertinent part it reads as follows…
A. The policies established by this Order shall apply to all flags flown by departments, commissions, boards, agencies, and officers of the State. … Section 2: Unless the context of this Executive Order indicates otherwise, the words and terms used in this Executive Order shall be defined as follows: A. “Flags of Louisiana” means the historical display of the ten flags flown over the State of Louisiana from the Spanish Flag of DeSoto in 1541 through the adoption of the Louisiana State Flag in 1912. B. “Half-staff’ means the position of the flag when it is one-half the distance between the top and bottom of the staff. C. “Honor and Remember Flag” means the flag defined in R.S. 49:156 as the official state emblem of military service. D. “POW/MIA Flag” means the National League of Families POW/MIA Flag as designated by 36 U.S.C. § 902. E. “State Flag” means the flag of Louisiana as defined in La. R.S. 49: 153, consisting of a solid blue field with the coat-of-arms of the state, the pelican tearing its breast to feed its young, in white in the center with an appropriate display of three drops of blood, and with a ribbon beneath, also in white, containing in blue the motto of the state, “Union, Justice and Confidence.” F. “United States Flag” means the flag of the United States as defined in 4 U.S.C. §§ 1-2 as thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white. The union of the flag shall be fifty stars, white in a blue field. Section 3: A. The United States Flag shall be flown daily from sunrise to sunset by public departments and institutions of the State. … E. No flag may be placed above the United States Flag. Section 4: A. The State Flag shall be flown daily from sunrise to sunset by public departments and institutions of the State. B. The State Flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness. C. The State Flag shall be placed to the United States Flag’s left or beneath the flag of the United States when flown on the same halyard, flagpole, or flagstaff. Section 5: A. The POW/MIA Flag shall wave from sunrise to sunset each day over the State Capitol. B. The POW/MIA Flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness. C. When flying the POW/MIA Flag on the same flagstaff as the United States Flag, the POW/MIA Flag should fly immediately below the United States flag. However, if the United States Flag and the State Flag will be flown along with the POW/MIA Flag on the same flagstaff, the order from top to bottom should be: the United States Flag, State Flag, then the POW/MIA Flag. D. When flags are flown from separate adjacent halyards, flagpoles, or flagstaffs that are of equal height the POW/MIA Flag should be on the State Flag’s left. … Section 7: A. Except as provided herein, only flags specifically adopted or recognized by Louisiana State Law shall be flown by departments, commissions, boards, agencies, and officers of the State. B. In addition to flags specifically recognized by Louisiana State Law, the following flags may be flown by executive branch agencies and offices: a. Military Flags of the Armed Forces b. Louisiana National Guard Flags c. The Flags of Louisiana d. An official flag of a state department, university, or agency that contains the name or symbol of the state department, university, or agency. … Section 9: A. All departments, commissions, boards, agencies, and officers of the state, or any political subdivision thereof, are authorized and directed to cooperate in the implementation of this Order. B. This Order is effective upon signature and shall remain in effect until amended, modified, terminated, or rescinded by the Governor, or terminated by operation of law.
At the time, this was a big “meh” for most folks. After all, when this order went out Landry was on the verge of vetoing the collateral source rule bill, and putting Democrat moneybags litigator John Carmouche on the LSU Board of Supervisors. Those things sucked the oxygen out of the State Capitol, and the flag order didn’t make much of a dent on the radar screen.
Besides, the order isn’t written in any kind of compelling way.
But if you parse it, what you’ll recognize is that Jeff Landry isn’t letting anything but those official flags fly on state buildings.
And there’s one flag in particular which is getting excluded. It’s this one…
The month of June is recognized as (LGBTI) Pride Month. The United States respects the dignity & equality of LGBTI people & celebrates their contributions to the society. We remain committed to supporting civil rights of minorities, including LGBTI persons. #Pride2021 #PrideMonth pic.twitter.com/qgKPQAPaOY
— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) June 2, 2021
We used that tweet for a reason: flying a Pride flag above the U.S. embassy in Kabul in June 2021 is almost certainly a big reason why the U.S. puppet government in Afghanistan was judged to have been able to hold power if our troops left prior to that flag went up in the most barbarian fundamentalist Muslim country on earth, and by the end of that month the Taliban was on the march all across that country and by mid-August had taken the whole country.
You can believe the Afghan people accepted the Taliban for reasons having nothing to do with that Pride flag. Or you can believe that flag was a proximate cause of the Afghan disaster. Either way, it’s a great example of how politicians of a certain stripe have used flags to push a cultural and political agenda.
But the point is that in Jeff Landry’s Louisiana there won’t be Pride flags flying from state buildings. That’s the effect of that executive order.
And on Saturday, pursuant to Landry’s executive order, LSU’s Board of Supervisors passed a resolution implementing it…
On June 14, 2024, Governor Landry issued Executive Order Number JML 24-24, “Policies and Procedures—Flags” applicable to all state agencies. LSU currently has a policy statement applicable to the LSU A&M campus regarding the display of flags (PS-66) but it does not have a Permanent Memorandum (system-wide policy) regarding flag displays. This resolution is to authorize and direct the president to update any existing policies and establish a system-wide policy regarding the official display of flags on the campuses. … NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College does hereby authorize and direct the President, or his designee, acting on his behalf, to update any existing policies and implement a Permanent Memorandum on policy and procedures pertaining to flags, in conformity with Executive Order Number JML 24-84.
Just like that, LSU is out of the Pride flag business.
Black Lives Matter flags, too.
The other public universities in Louisiana will be following suit as well.
It’s going to be interesting, once all this sets in, to see what reaction this generates.