Leading figures in the conservative movement expressed their anger on stage at a Turning Point U.S.A. conference over the hanging of an LGBTQ+ flag at the venue to mark Pride Month.
Charlie Kirk, the action group's founder and a political commentator, railed against the flag being hung beside the star-spangled banner and the Texas flag outside the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, near Dallas, and threatened not to return to the hotel for further events.
He said he had tried to have the flag removed, but had "failed." Conservative activists gathered at the hotel and conference center for Turning Point's Young Women's Leadership Summit over the weekend.
Conservative commentators have hit out at previous shows of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community this month, and it follows months of calls for boycotts of brands appearing to align with or serve LGBTQ+ customers, including Bud Light and Target. The controversies speak to a wider culture war about the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in public life.
"You're told you can't say things like this and I'm going to say it: I just drove up to here at the Gaylord and I saw three flags," Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman for Georgia, said on stage at the conference, eliciting boos from the crowd before laughing.
"And one of the flags, which was just as big as the other ones—our United States flag, the Texas flag—was the rainbow flag," she said, stirring more boos from the audience.
"I'm standing in the Gaylord and they might kick me out and never want me to come back – shame on them," Green added to further cheers. "Shame on them for hanging that flag out there. Shame on them. Because it shouldn't be about what people do sexually that causes us to hang a flag somewhere."
This is the pride flag that had Charlie Kirk threatening to no longer bring his conference to the Gaylord Texan Resort. pic.twitter.com/ydwEEcSkeX
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 11, 2023
Newsweek approached Marriott, the owner of the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, via email for comment on Monday.
In a separate speech to the audience, Kirk compared the hanging of the rainbow flag to the transgender movement. Transgender activists have been fighting for better representation and support at a time when there are 369 active bills across the U.S. aimed at curbing those freedoms, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker.
"This social contagion that is spreading [across] the country at a rapid pace that disguises itself as 'transgenderism,'" Kirk told Young Women's Leadership Summit attendees. "And it is accelerating; it is not slowing down.
"You see it on equal footing outside of this hotel. I tried my best to take down the flag everybody—I tried my best; I failed," he added, eliciting loud cheers from the audience. "I know you were all thinking it, right? What is that all about?
"By the way, this hotel better do something or we're going to find another hotel, because I'm not going to come back. This is ridiculous."
He added: "This is not right; this is an insult to all of us, to our traditions and our customs."
While those at the conference were evidently unhappy with the presence of the LGBTQ+ pride flag, many on social media either praised the hotel for apparently not taking the flag down or suggested Kirk should attempt to find somewhere else to hold the conference.
"For people to go crazy over their flying the Pride flag shows why it needs to be flown," Water PIO, a crisis communications firm, tweeted.
Last week, right-wing figures hit out at the U.S. Air Force tweeting an image depicting a soldier saluting the Pride flag. Benny Johnson, a Turning Point U.S.A. activist, said that the post was "actively disgracing our military."
Prior to that, news that the U.S. Navy had used a serving officer who also is a drag queen as a digital ambassador sparked a backlash.
Several brands—including Bud Light, Target and The North Face—have faced an outcry in recent months for expressing their support for the LGBTQ+ community in various ways.
On its website, an official Young Women's Leadership Summit 2023 Spotify playlist included songs by Wham!, Elton John and "Y.M.C.A." by the Village People. All three musical acts are known for having gay members.
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