References to hate symbols that “could be divisive” from a U.S. Coast Guard policy were removed Thursday, as a U.S. senator said she was lifting a hold on a nomination for the service’s top job.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the Coast Guard, said on social media that the latest changes were made so that no one could “misrepresent” the Coast Guard’s position.
“The pages of the superseded and outdated policy will be completely removed from the record so no media, entity or elected official can misrepresent the Coast Guard, politicize its policies and misrepresent their stance on symbols of division and hate,” Noem said.
The move appears to be an effort to end the Coast Guard’s back-and-forth policy on swastikas, nooses and other symbols of hate that has caused uproar. The Department of Homeland Security said the policy language “was never ‘downgraded.'”
Noem’s announcement came a day after Sen. Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., said she was delaying the nomination of Adm. Kevin Lundy to be Coast Guard commander because leadership appeared to “backtrack” on a pledge to ban swastikas and nooses as symbols of hate and ban their display.
Rosen said on social media Thursday that she would be lifting her reservation and looked forward to working with Lundy to continue strengthening the Coast Guard’s anti-harassment policy.
“While I still have reservations about the process by which this occurred and the confusion created by DHS leadership, I am pleased to see that the policy now directly addresses stronger language regarding swastikas and nooses,” she said.
Noem called the delay in Lundy’s nomination a “politicized holdup” and said it had gone on long enough that he should be confirmed immediately.
“He provided nearly 39 years of distinguished service to the Coast Guard, this country and the American people,” she said.
The Coast Guard plans to change its policy, saying hate symbols “could be divisive” after they surfaced publicly last month. Rather than ban them, it said commanders could take steps to remove them from public view, and that the rule did not apply to private spaces such as family homes.
DHS said the change “enhances our ability to report, investigate and prosecute those who violate longstanding policies.”
The Coast Guard said on social media that it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy against symbols of hate, extremist ideologies, and any behavior that undermines our core values. We prohibit the display or promotion of symbols of hate in any form. Any suggestion otherwise is wrong.”
The Washington Post first reported the latest developments.