'Excessive division': GOP lawmaker wants Pride flag banned to prevent 'hatred'
Wisconsin state representative Jerry O'Connor (R) on September 11, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via Heartland Signal / X)
A Wisconsin Republican state lawmaker is defending his legislation that would ban LGBTQ+ pride flags, along with other flags, from being flown on government buildings, by claiming that they are divisive.
In remarks on the floor on Thursday, GOP state Rep. Jerry O’Connor linked the 9/11 attacks with Wednesday’s assassination of right-wing commentator and activist Charlie Kirk to defend his bill.
“These two events have something in common: Those that hate the standards and the principles and the founding institutions that we have in America,” Rep. O’Connor told his colleagues.
O’Connor argued that his legislation is, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “designed to eliminate ‘government-sponsored division’ and could prevent future political violence by limiting which flags can be on display.”
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Rep. O’Connor, the paper added, “hypothesized that if the Capitol hosted flags representing LGBTQ+ Pride, the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, Black Lives Matter, pro-life and pro-choice causes, ‘in the end, anyone driving around this building’s going to be upset. Why would we do that?'”
O’Connor told colleagues that “you move from what’s too often political dialogue, that moves to political rhetoric, and there are those extreme cases where it leads to hatred and to murder. That’s not the role that the government should be a part of as elected officials here in Wisconsin, and we need to act.”
“We need to be the ones who lead by setting aside political and partisan differences. Stop the gaslighting. Stop the hateful rhetoric, and stop the excessive division,” he said. “Today, we’ve heard various testimony that objects to this bill as if it’s the cause of division, when it is quite the opposite. It’s to stop causing division.”
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The Republican majority passed Rep. O’Connor’s bill, which will ban all flags, including the LGBTQ+ Pride flag, from flying on government buildings, except for the state flag, the U.S. flag or a state agency’s flag.
The LGBTQ+ Pride flag was designed to be a symbol of inclusion, tolerance, and unity.
O’Connor’s legislation comes after Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, “in 2019 ordered the LGBTQ+ pride flag to fly over the East Wing of the state Capitol during the month of June — the first time the rainbow flag flew above the building in its history. Evers has continued to raise the flag each year since, moving to the ‘Progress’ pride flag in 2022.”
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