On Friday, June 26, the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice issued a 224-page draft report from the Religious Liberty Commission. Reprinted below is the comment I submitted regarding Chapter 13: Barriers to Religious Liberty in the Public and Private Sectors.
During so-called Pride Month (June 2026), the Outagamie County (Wisconsin) Courthouse flew a Pride Flag along with the United States and State of Wisconsin flags.
A citizen objected, lowered the Pride Flag, and doused it with gasoline. He was prevented from setting it on fire by law enforcement officials at the courthouse. The county executive, Tom Nelson, proudly proclaimed on social media that the flag had been restored. “We want to continue to assure people that we are a welcoming and inclusive community that is open to everyone,” he said.
Given that Outagamie County claims to be a “welcoming and inclusive community,” I submitted a request to the county executive’s office, asking about the procedures for flying other flags at appropriate times. For example, the Christian flag could be flown during the Easter and Christmas holiday seasons. POW flags are often flown by communities as well.
My question about flying other flags received a prompt, curt, and ultimately unsatisfactory reply from Anne Van, Executive Operations and Public Relations Specialist in the Office of the Outagamie County Executive. She wrote:
“We received your question regarding a special flag. The county does not take special requests for flag flying. The only flags we fly are the American Flag, the Wisconsin State Flag and the Pride Flag from June 1 – June 30.”
No county-specific data are available to quantify the number of people in Outagamie County who identify as LGBTQIA+. According to the Williams Institute, roughly 5.5% of the national population identifies as LGBTQIA+. Applying that percentage to the county’s population of roughly 195,000 means there are roughly 10,725 people in the county who identify as LGBTQIA+.
According to the 2020 Census, nearly SIX TIMES as many people in Outagamie County are Catholic: 62,763 Catholics versus an estimated 10,725 LGBTQIA+. Add in the numbers who belong to other Christian faiths, and you can see how many more people in Outagamie County are Christian than LGBTQIA+.
So why is the Pride Flag being flown at the County Courthouse, but the Christian flag cannot be?
Racial discrimination in the public square, that’s why.
