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According to conservative pages, Democrats are adding a rainbow to the American flag, and "gullible" is written on the ceiling above you. Go ahead, look up.
Fact-checkers have debunked claims online that Democrats are seeking to redesign the American flag to include rainbow stripes.
Reuters fact-checkers found "no evidence" to support posts circulating on social media that claim "Democrats are calling to redesign the American Flag to make it more inclusive." The posts, from conservative pages, notably did not present any evidence to support their claims to begin with. Still, the claims triggered many among the far-right, who expressed their manufactured outrage in the comments.
“Democrats apparently are not Americans,” one person wrote.
“These democrats are anti God!” claimed another, despite the U.S. flag being secular.
"The American flag is for Americans, they already have flags for the rest of the alphabet people," one person said, seemingly implying that LGBTQ+ people living in the country are somehow not part of it.
One commenter apparently saw no irony in writing, "these people need to relearn proper history."
The U.S. flag has remained unchanged since 1960, when it was only slightly altered to add a star representing Hawaii after it had just become a state, which the federal government itself will tell you. Fact-checkers also noted that no such plans are listed on the Democrats’ party platform, or on the websites of the House Democrats and Senate Democrats.
Versions of the American flag with rainbow stripes are available through independent sellers online. The one featured in the post's photo is from an April 25, 2015 protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court, days before the hearing on marriage equality, and can be found on Getty Images. The flag in the picture features pink stars sewn on top of the traditional white stars, representing which states at the time had already enacted marriage equality, and which hadn't.
At least one commenter on the initial post seemingly hadn't lost their head when they went against the grain to write: "The flag is already inclusive. E Pluribus Unum!"
