The University of Chicago has decided to no longer fly the LGBTQ+ Pride flag for Pride Month at its UC Laboratory Schools campus after three years, according to an announcement by interim director Ethan Bueno de Mesquita.
The flag had been raised annually at the Blaine Courtyard flagpole since 2022 as part of the school’s Pride Month observance. In a Monday email, Bueno de Mesquita stated that the decision applies specifically to the flagpole and is based on the institution’s new policy requiring viewpoint-neutral teaching.
“To be clear,” he wrote in the email, “the full membership of LGBTQ+ people in the Lab community is not a contested issue. It is a core value.”
Activists have expressed outrage over the move, describing the display of even basic symbols expressing the dignity of students as an unacceptable violation of institutional neutrality.
The UC Laboratory High School is a program for gifted high schoolers to experience the University of Chicago.
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