Politics

Conservatives freak out as Rachel Levine says Pride is going to last all summer this year

She declared this the "Summer of Pride" and the whining about rainbow flags was deafening.
By
Admiral Dr. Rachel Levine of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps
Admiral Dr. Rachel Levine of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps Photo: Provided

Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine declared this the “Summer of Pride,” and now conservatives are worried that the rainbows won’t go away at the end of this week.

“Today officially marks the 1st Day of Summer,” the out trans Biden administration official wrote on Summer Solstice last week. “All summer long we will be celebrating the ‘Summer of Pride.’ I see it as an opportunity for change in our communities, states&nation. It will take us all, but together we can create a wave of change. Let the ‘Summer of Pride’ begin!”

Related:

Pete Buttigieg, Dr. Rachel Levine & all LGBTQ members of Congress banned from Russia

Of course Jen Psaki was ready with a clapback.

Levine also posted a video to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Instagram account, where she said: “Happy Pride! Happy Pride Month, and actually — let’s declare it a summer of Pride. Happy Summer of Pride!”

She was referring to the Department of Health and Human Services’ social media outreach to LGBTQ+ people, which will continue throughout the summer. This will include Instagram video interviews.

But commenters apparently didn’t think that a few Instagram videos are all that innocuous.

“Ok Groomer,” wrote one person on Instagram.

“It’s sick and getting sicker out there,” wrote another.

“There is no pride in perversion,” wrote another person.

Several conservative publications covered Levine’s extension of Pride Month as if the assistant secretary of health can force all Americans to fly rainbow flags for three months.

“Rachel Levine declares this the ‘Summer of Pride,’ calls transgender treatment ‘suicide prevention care,'” blared Fox News’s headline.

“Biden official Rachel Levine wants to prolong Pride Month to Summer of Pride,” the Washington Times complained in their headline.

The National Review’s Rich Lowry had a sarcastic tantrum about being told that other people might treat LGBTQ+ people with respect for more than one month out of the year.

“Take all summer! That’s July and August, September, all the way up to the 23rd this year, which is the formal end of summer,” he whined. “If you think about it, in the fall, there are a lot of warm days. There’s Indian summer in the autumn as well, so maybe fall should be a Pride season as well.”

“By the end of June, most people are ‘Prided’ out,” Karen Townsend complained on the conservative website Hot Air. “Pride this, Pride that. The LGBTQ community is still a minority in this country yet to see all the stories and month-long celebrations of the sexual preference of some Americans, you would think everyone is gay, or bi-sexual, or whatever.”

And on Twitter, where she posted her original message about the “Summer of Pride,” many people in the responses took her declaration fairly badly.

Don't forget to share:
Politics
Rachel Levine

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

Support for gay relationships dropped drastically among Republicans

Previous article

Progressive org demands school district ban the Bible after it banned other “obscene” books

Next article

More in Politics