Vice President Mike Pence said it was “the right decision” by the Trump administration to deny requests to fly rainbow flags during gay pride month, according to a new report.
Pence confirmed a recent report by NBC News that found the US Department of State prohibited at least four US embassies — in Israel, Germany, Brazil and Latvia — from flying the flag during June.
He said the State Department told the embassies that only American flags should fly on the flagpoles.
“I support that,” Pence told NBC News in an interview Monday.
Asked whether his defense of the move contradicts President Trump’s tweet last month praising the “outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation,” the vice president reiterated his stance.
“As the president said on the night we were elected, we’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said. “We both feel that way very passionately, but when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
He added that the Trump administration “put no restrictions” on US embassies placing gay pride flags elsewhere.
Pence, who once described himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” has come under fire for his views on the LGBT community before.
The former Indiana governor believes marriage should be between a man and a woman and, while governor, he signed into law a “religious freedom bill” that critics said allowed discrimination against gays and lesbians.