Martha Ann Alito, wife of Justice Samuel Alito, has admitted to flying political flags outside her home because she can’t stand the colors of the rainbow.
“I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag,” she told a woman posing as a Catholic conservative, “because I need to see the Pride flag across the lagoon for the next month.” In the secretly recorded conversation, she fantasized about making her own flaming flag with the word “Vergogna” (Italian for “shame”) and telling her neighbors, “Shame, shame, shame.”
Apparently, for Ms. Alito, the second great commandment, “Love thy neighbor,” only applies to her until that neighbor is proud enough to show off a rainbow.
To be honest, these comments aren’t particularly surprising. Alito is the wife of a justice who agrees that the country needs to return to a “godly place.” And she claims that court decisions on same-sex marriage limit the free speech of religious conservatives (if that’s true, someone should tell her to shut up before she gets jailed for what she says).
These comments are also emblematic of a broader campaign by the Religious Right to publicly stamp out or shame queer culture, often taking the form of attempted and successful bans of books, flags, cross-dressing performances, and curricula. Alito’s comments are only slightly revealing in that they suggest it is still socially acceptable for religious conservatives to denigrate the queer community in supposedly polite gatherings.
While it is undeniably exhausting that anti-LGBTQ sentiment continues to be rampant among members of America’s most powerful institutions, queer people should be heartened that even that most innocuous of our symbols, the rainbow flag, still provokes those who hate us.
In 1978, activist Gilbert Baker (“the gay Betsy Ross,” in his words) and a group of volunteers dyed and sewed the first rainbow pride flag in the attic of San Francisco’s Gay Community Center. The flag has gone through many transitions since then, but the rainbow has endured as a welcome, if sometimes clichéd, symbol of pride.
Because the rainbow has been co-opted so often by corporations and “allies” who have little interest in LGBTQ equality outside of a boozy weekend in June, some queer people may think it has been too diluted to stand as a powerful symbol, but the predictable outrage from people like Phyllis, Anita and Martha Ann should remind even the most cynical of us that our symbols often speak louder than we could ever speak for ourselves alone.
As efforts to limit cultural expressions of queer identity grow, the rainbow is one of the best tools we have for our collective rejection of those who want us to be ashamed of who we are. We must wield it with pride.
Happy Pride Month, Martha Ann! Praying for you!
