Pushing back against 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' movements (DEI) has been a major portion of President Donald Trump's agenda. He signed an executive order that seeks to root out DEI from government, much to the dismay of Trump-deranged Leftists like Bill Kristol.
It's the correct move, ideologically speaking. DEI is state-sanctioned racism (that 'systemic racism' the Left claimed to both abhor and oppose). However, because the targets of DEI -- white, heterosexual, Christian men and women -- aren't 'diverse' enough, open discrimination against them is acceptable.
It's (D)ifferent when they do it, after all.
While I wholeheartedly support the abolition of all things woke, I know from experience the Left isn't going to give up their virtue-signaling moral flagship without a fight.
And they aren't. Rather than follow the law and comply with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, the Left is simply going to rebrand DEI into other things.
A rose by any other name and all that.
In Salt Lake City, the mayor, Democrat Erin Mendenhall, is looking to skirt state laws prohibiting identity flags from flying on public buildings.
Salt Lake City's mayor has proposed three new city flags as part of an effort to circumvent a recent Utah law that effectively banned flying LGBTQ Pride and other identity flags at public buildings in the state. https://t.co/6l4PlKUU1D
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 7, 2025
In March, Utah became the first state to make it illegal to fly such flags at all public schools and universities and government buildings, triggering outrage among Democratic officials and civil rights groups in the state. That law prohibits unsanctioned flag displays and was widely interpreted to ban flags celebrating various communities in Salt Lake City, a blue spot in socially and politically conservative Utah.
One of the proposed flags, dubbed the Sego Belonging Flag, is intended to honor the city’s LGBTQ residents, while another, which officials called the Sego Visibility Flag, is intended to recognize the city’s trans community. The third proposed flag, dubbed the Sego Celebration Flag, is intended to honor the city’s Black residents, as well as the history surrounding the Juneteenth holiday.
Because I am a visual person, I'll include a screenshot of these 'new flags' that are meant to defy duly enacted state legislation:
There is no better encapsulation of the Left than these images. They've taken the flower from the original flag, slapped it on flags that are prohibited under state law, and expect to be okay.
Utah voters elected a representative state legislature and governor, who passed a law prohibiting these divisive, woke flags. And Mayor Mendenhall thinks she has more authority than they do.
Party of Democracy, indeed.
Salt Lake City isn't the first Democratic stronghold that has tried this. The Mayo Clinic rebranded its DEI program as the 'Office of Belonging' in a failed attempt to thwart President Trump's DEI executive order.
And they won't be the last.
In his 1964 concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of hardcore pornography that 'I know it when I see it.'
The same rule applies to DEI. We know it when we see it, but nailing down a consistent, textbook definition is a challenge bordering on the impossible. It is an ideological kudzu, invasive and hard to eradicate.
But eradicate it we must, even if it means an ongoing culture war with the Left.
And that's a war we will only end when they wave the white flag of surrender.
