Is it legal to burn a rainbow flag?

[Fawlty]

It seems like it would be a silly form of protest sure, and mean-spirited. But that's not the question. Would it be covered by freedom of expression? After all, I seriously doubt that everyone who ever burned a US flag has "suffered or been persecuted" by the US. And it's not like they have to prove that they were in order for their act of protest to be considered legal.

A couple of American posters here seem pretty confident that burning a rainbow flag would be covered by the First Amendment. Since nobody is citing any cases I'm guessing that it's never come up before the courts, or if it was then it didn't get a lot of publicity. I'm wondering about Canada as we don't have a First Amendment, although our courts have decided that burning a Canadian flag is a legitimate form of protest.

The only case I know of was a person or people going up to a home, stealing their LGBT flag, then dousing it in gas and burning it. That's pretty clearly something that should be prosecuted in the same way that KKK property assaults were handled.

 

[dontsnitch]

Could be hate speech in Toronto...

 

[sangreporsangre]

The only case I know of was a person or people going up to a home, stealing their LGBT flag, then dousing it in gas and burning it. That's pretty clearly something that should be prosecuted in the same way that KKK property assaults were handled.

Definitely.

 

[Trotsky]

Yes, it's legal. Flag burning laws were declared unconstitutional decades ago.

Sounds like something that would clearly be protected by the 1st Amendment in the US.

Thanks to the left, surprise surprise. It was conservative law makers penalizing flag burning and anti-war demonstrations, and the conservative world had a fit when they were deemed protected speech.

The only 2 flags liberals would be against burning are the LGBT flag and an ISIS flag.

ISIS is an ultra-conservative group. It's so weird that you dolts think liberals side with them (despite ISIS being much, much more similar to American conservatives politically) just because liberals don't openly disparage brown people or call them terrorists arbitrarily.

 

[Fawlty]

So you don't really see a reason other than two distinct motives? And look at the scare words here. Couldn't a person simply protest the queer agenda without necessarily hating it? I think so. And couldn't they protest it for varied reasons? You are looking at this from a narrow perspective imo.

No, I think you're stretching credulity yet again to defend-without-really-defending horrible behavior.

 

[Jack V Savage]

What guys?

You guys posting this kind of silliness.

 

[Higus]

Reminds me of the laws that protect or ban cross burning.
If the purpose of the rainbow flag burning is to intimidate others, then that would be illegal. If it is an expression of free speech, then it is legal. It would be on the onus of the prosecutor to determine the context of the protest if they were to bring it to court.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

No, I think you're stretching credulity yet again to defend-without-really-defending horrible behavior.

You think flag burning is horrible behavior?

 

[Fawlty]

You think flag burning is horrible behavior?

Your games are boring. You are boring.

 

[sangreporsangre]

You guys posting this kind of silliness.

What silliness? I'm asking some questions here because I've never heard of this coming up before. Other guys have made threads on this same topic?

 

[Hard To Tell]

What if it's a Muslim burning a rainbow flag?

 

[sangreporsangre]

Reminds me of the laws that protect or ban cross burning.
If the purpose of the rainbow flag burning is to intimidate others, then that would be illegal. If it is an expression of free speech, then it is legal. It would be on the onus of the prosecutor to determine the context of the protest if they were to bring it to court.

Are there specific laws on the books about cross burning?

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Your games are boring. You are boring.

I don't think you are bored. I think it is hard for you to give a good answer to a very basic question because you have double standards.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Depends on the bylaws on open burn of garbage and non organic materials

 

[AlexDB9]

I think burning any kind of flag is stupid and gae.

This, Rick Monday bless

 

[Jack V Savage]

What silliness? I'm asking some questions here because I've never heard of this coming up before. Other guys have made threads on this same topic?

Other guys have expressed similar persecution fantasies or speculation, yeah. The premise is utterly ridiculous. It's not a remotely controversial or questionable issue. Of course it's legal to burn a rainbow flag.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I don't think you are bored. I think it is hard for you to give a good answer to a very basic question because you have double standards.

Oh, you know you deliberately misread his post.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Oh, you know you deliberately misread his post.

Nope.

 

[Fawlty]

I don't think you are bored. I think it is hard for you to give a good answer to a very basic question because you have double standards.

You really should fuck off though, with that nonsense. Some practically nonexistent occurrence burning of a gay flag that doesn't come from bigotry/hatred/intolerance? How much time does that corner-of-a-corner case deserve? None. U.S. flag burning can come from a lot of motivations (obviously, since it's a much larger symbol encompassing many more people and ideas, including the LGBT flag if you're keeping score).

It's far more likely that given 100 gay flag burnings and 100 U.S. flag burnings that the U.S. flag burnings are coming from a large variety of motivations, with hate/bigotry being a subset of those motivations, while on the other hand the gay flag burnings would be almost exclusively expressions of bigotry/hate.

And this is so obvious that it's not plausible that you're so stupid that you don't see it immediately. So I'll compliment your intelligence and just assume that religious bigotry gets you hard as fuck.

 

[Wet Blanket]

It seems like it would be a silly form of protest sure, and mean-spirited. But that's not the question. Would it be covered by freedom of expression? After all, I seriously doubt that everyone who ever burned a US flag has "suffered or been persecuted" by the US. And it's not like they have to prove that they were in order for their act of protest to be considered legal.

A couple of American posters here seem pretty confident that burning a rainbow flag would be covered by the First Amendment. Since nobody is citing any cases I'm guessing that it's never come up before the courts, or if it was then it didn't get a lot of publicity. I'm wondering about Canada as we don't have a First Amendment, although our courts have decided that burning a Canadian flag is a legitimate form of protest.

Would you suggest otherwise?

Please explain.