As part of a $1.2 trillion government funding deal President Joe Biden signed on Saturday that will keep the majority of U.S. government agencies open until September 30, LGBTQ pride flags will be banned from being flown at U.S. embassies.

If lawmakers didn’t pass a funding bill by March 1, it would have triggered a partial government shutdown, with a full government shutdown occurring on March 8.

The bill says that no U.S. funding can be used to “fly or display a flag over a facility of the United States Department of State” other than U.S. or other government-related flags, or flags supporting prisoners of war, missing-in-action soldiers, hostages and wrongfully detained Americans.

“Pride flags are symbolic. Honestly, there’s a lot of criticism about the ways that orgs and companies and the US Government waves pride flags only to not support LGBTQ people,” transgender journalist and activist Erin Reed said on social media. “But when the symbols themselves become a tool for compromise, alarm bells go off.”

According to Reed, Republicans attempted to attach over 40 anti-LGBT provisions to the spending bill as “riders,” including a provision that would have mandated that no hospitals in the country provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Additionally in February, the House Freedom Caucus threatened to shut down........

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