Two prisons have been ordered to remove the so-called pride progress flag following a complaint from an MP who said the flag “promotes the idea you can be born in the wrong body.”
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the “incorrectly flown” flags had been taken down from HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth.
In a letter to Nick Fletcher, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on issues affecting men and boys, Mr. Chalk said while the six-striped rainbow flag is included in the list of authorised flags in England, the “pride progress” flag is not.
The flag is an updated version of the rainbow flag that contains more stripes to represent those who identify as transgender or other sexualities, and LGBT ethnic minorities.
According to the minister, the prisons put up the flags to “show support for the LGBT community among Prisons and Probation staff.
“However, the choice of flag was not the correct one in these instances,” Mr. Chalk wrote.
The minister said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and its agencies follow the flags guidance published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) and the Ministry of Housing to “remain consistent' across all government departments.
“Whilst every prison is expected to fly the Union Flag, and establishment may also fly additional flags. The is limited however, to those stipulated in the aforementioned guidance,” he wrote.
“The six-stripe ‘rainbow flag’ is one of the flags authorised to be flown should an establishment wish to do so, but this permission does not extend to any other representative versions, including the one incorrectly flown. Therefore, those at HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth have been duly taken down,” Mr. Chalk wrote.
“We will work with our estates colleagues to remind all our institutions of the regulations regarding the flying of flags on MoJ property.”
Mr. Fletcher said he’s “pleased” about the minister’s action, and that more needs to be done to remove the transgender ideology.
“The Pride Progress flag promotes the idea you can be born in the wrong body. You can’t. This ideology harms vulnerable people,” he wrote on X.
“Much more work is needed from government ministers to remove the influence of this ideology from across government departments. It undermines science, free speech, women’s rights, and child safeguarding,” he added.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the MoJ for comment.
It comes after the justice secretary ordered a review into a guidebook for prison staff which reportedly contained various pronouns and testimonies of transgender prisoners, including one who blamed his or her family’s anti-trans “abuse” for his or her “lashing out” at others.
