Good Trouble: VA Pride Flags

Doug Collins wants to get rid of pride flags at VA clinics and facilities. Let's make sure they get rid of MAGA flags, too.

I’m beyond sickened by what’s happening at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Yesterday, dozens of VA employees shared a new flag directive with me, sent by Doug Collins, Trump’s VA Secretary:

Public displays or depictions of flags throughout VA facilities to establish more consistent and clear guidance across the Department of Veterans Affairs and among all employees the VA is instituting a new policy effective immediately limiting the display of flags beyond the united states flag at VA facilities.

The guidance applies to public displays or depictions of flags by VA Employees in all VA facilities, workplaces, Buildings, common areas and public areas, including but not limited to individual offices, Cubicles, government vehicles, office buildings, recreational areas, medical centers, storage rooms, kitchens and restrooms, all spaces or items in public or plain view outside of a VA Facility (ie parking lot).

The public display or depiction of unauthorized flags in museum exhibits state-issued license plates, grave sites, memorial markers monuments, educational displays, historical displays, or works of art where the nature of the display or depiction cannot reasonably be viewed as endorsement of the flag by the department is not prohibited.

All veterans and VA beneficiaries will always be welcome at all VA facilities to receive the benefits and services they have earned under law. This policy will bring consistency and simplicity to the display of flags throughout the department, which I expect to have a singular focus: serving the needs of veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.

I worked for the VA from 2009 to 2020, and our core values were to welcome and celebrate all who served - with the explicit understanding that providing quality healthcare requires us to understand and accept all Veterans; especially when providing essential, life-saving mental health care. While the new secretary claims that “all veterans will always be welcome at all VA facilities,” yanking pride flags sends a pretty clear message that many are NOT welcome. That will have a chilling impact on patients who may no longer feel that it’s safe to talk about who they are, and to simply exist as a person.

VA’s pledge to serve all who served will be disrupted by sending signals to some who served that they’re not valued. VA has spent years undoing the impacts of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - restoring benefits to those wrongly discharged and ensuring that no one is left behind. These pedantic and childish flag restrictions on celebrating joy and individualism will have damaging consequences, and it’s a far cry from the VA I was proud to work for for over a decade. Further, not one single impact study or white paper was done to test the impacts of this policy on our Veteran population and their families.

I truly hope that our VA employees will continue to display pride flags and depictions of flags under exemptions to this policy: “educational displays or works of art where the display or depiction cannot be reasonably viewed as endorsement of the flag.” For example, the picture I took below is from displays at my VA clinic, and I believe it to be educational.

So what can we do?

GOOD TROUBLE:

I encourage everyone to visit your local VA hospital or VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic (you don’t have to be a Veteran) and look for other flags that might violate this policy including MAGA flags, Trump flags, thin blue line flags, Gadsden “don’t tread on me” flags, confederate flags, 1776 flags or other outdated American flags with fewer than 50 stars, Pine Tree (appeal to heaven) flags, punisher flags, NFL team flags etc… and report those flags to the facility director, the VISN, the VA OIG, the clinic patient advocate, and your congresspeople. Don’t forget to check the commissary and gift shop for these unauthorized flags. They’re always selling right wing mugs and pins and bumperstickers that undoubtedly have flags and depictions of unauthorized MAGA flags on them.

Finally, my door is always open for anyone who needs to talk - my secure contact info is in my Bluesky bio at muellershewrote.bsky.social - feel free to reach out to me anytime if you need to talk or vent. And if you’re in crisis, please dial 988.

Love you all,

~AG