The US embassy in Seoul has removed banners celebrating the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and gay pride after running afoul of US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The embassy on Saturday had unfurled a banner on the building reading “Black Lives Matter” in solidarity with the increasingly global movement that has emerged after the killing of African American George Floyd while in Minneapolis, Minnesota, police custody.
In a Facebook message on Saturday, the embassy said the banner “shows our support for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality as we strive to be a more inclusive & just society.”
Photo: AP
On Twitter, US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris said he believed that from “diversity we gain our strength” and quoted former president John F. Kennedy.
Harris is Japanese-American and previously told embassy staff that he was “deeply troubled about the events surrounding the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the ongoing aftermath.”
“As an Asian American who was raised in the segregated South of the 1960s, I never thought I would see this happening again, especially in the 21st century,” he added in a message.
Photo: AFP
However, the BLM banner was taken down on Monday, with CNN quoting an anonymous source saying that the request to do so came from the office of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The embassy also removed a rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBTQ equality movement — hours before a landmark US Supreme Court decision on Monday that outlawed discrimination against workers based on sexual orientation.
A huge banner commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War yesterday covered the space previously occupied by the two emblems, featuring a black-and-white photograph of a bugler in a military cemetery and a message in Korean reading: “We don’t forget.”
The official explanation from the embassy, which did not mention the LGBT pride flag, was that the BLM banner was removed to avoid any perception that it was meant “to support or encourage donations to any specific organization.”
In a statement, an embassy spokesperson said the removal of the BLM banner “in no way lessens the principles and ideals expressed by raising the banner, and the embassy will look for other ways to convey fundamental American values in these times of difficulty at home.”
The decision drew criticism from some activists in Seoul — and speculation that Trump might have been responsible.
Lee Tae-ho, a member of the Seoul-based civic organization People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, called the abrupt banner removal regrettable, saying its presence was “a very positive thing that could improve the US image and help resolve the problem.”
“If the removal was really made because of pressure made by Trump ... I think what they did was unhelpful for the US,” Lee said.
Pompeo, an evangelical Christian who in the past has said that he defines marriage as between a man and a woman, last year restricted the flying of rainbow flags, as some embassies had been doing each June for Pride Month, which celebrates the movement for LGBTQ equality.
Trump and Pompeo have both condemned the killing of Floyd and spoken in general terms of the need to reform law enforcement.
Additional reporting by AP
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