The U.S. Coast Guard will reportedly no longer consider swastikas, nooses, or the Confederate flag to be hate symbols, according to forthcoming guidelines obtained by The Washington Post, though the service branch denies changing its stance towards such imagery.
Under the guidelines obtained by the paper, these symbols will instead be considered “potentially divisive” imagery, though flying the Confederate flag will remain banned.“We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas,” an anonymous Coast Guard official who has seen the alleged guidelines told the paper.
The Coast Guard strongly disputed it was softening its policy towards these symbols.
“The claims that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false,” Admiral Kevin Lunday, Acting Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a statement to The Independent. “These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy. Any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”