'Stop the hateful rhetoric!' Republican seeks to ban Pride flags stoking 'division'

A Wisconsin Republican lawmaker who has introduced legislation to prohibit LGBTQ Pride flags from being displayed at the state capitol invoked 9/11, as well as yesterday's killing of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk in Orem, Utah, as justification for why his bill was necessary in the first place.

In his reasoning, Rep. Jerry O'Connor of Fond du Lac told colleagues in a speech on the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly, his bill was about eliminating "division" and ending the state endorsement of "hateful rhetoric," though he did not elaborate on what the Pride flag has to do with either of those things.

"Today's a remembrance, and it's also a new day of sadness," said O'Connor. "So on September 11th, we are acknowledging those who lost their lives in Washington and in D.C. 24 years ago, and then yesterday we were struck with a political assassination."

"These two events have something in common: those that hate the standards and the principles and the founding institutions that we have in America," O'Connor continued. "So we 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, we need to act," he added. "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. 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."

As of press time, Kirk's killer remains at large with an extensive state and federal manhunt underway, and no motive has been provided by authorities investigating the case.