Video of the Day: Fox News Guest Says Confederate and Pride Flags Are The Exact Same

On today’s episode of “Fox and Friends” Republican commentator and author Star Parker appeared and told audiences that the confederate flag and Pride flag represent the “exact same thing.” Spoiler alert: They don’t, not even close.

The remark came after co-host Steve Doocy asked Parker about Nancy Pelosi’s Monday statement in which she called upon Trump to fire chief strategist Steve Bannon.

“What do you think about [Pelosi], who made this statement yesterday: ‘It shouldn’t take the president of the United States two days to summon the basic decency to condemn murder and violence by Nazis and white supremacists,’” Doocy asked.

“That is not what happened,” Parker said. “Nancy Pelosi is exploiting an opportunity that they think will play to their side. On Saturday, there were two sides that were in an American city that were—then it was escalating very rapidly. No, the question became then, well, do you denounce the one part of it?”

Parker went on to say that anger over the confederate flag is quite ironic (wait… what?).

“But you know what’s really interesting and really incredible irony here is the same people that are demanding that the Confederate flag comes down are the same people that are insisting that the rainbow flag goes up,” she added. “These two flags represent the exact same thing. That certain people groups are not welcome here. So if Nancy Pelosi wants to say that we’re going to start shutting down First Amendment rights of a certain group of people, then what happens the next time that the homosexuals want to walk through an American city and protest and counter protesters come out?”

This statement is utterly perplexing to us here at GO. The Pride flag was created by artist Gilbert Baker as an antidote to the pink triangle. The pink triangle was a symbol created by the Nazis to identify and persecute gays, a symbol which was reclaimed in the 70s in a bold statement of remembrance and action against persecution. Baker created the rainbow flag as a positive beckon of hope for the LGBTQ community.

“It all goes back to the first moment of the first flag back in 1978 for me. Raising it up and seeing it there blowing in the wind for everyone to see. It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant like a bolt of lightening—that this was their flag. It belonged to all of us,” Baker said. “It was the most thrilling moment of my life. Because I knew right then that this was the most important thing I would ever do—that my whole life was going to be about the Rainbow Flag.”

On the other hand, the confederate flag has a complicated and sordid history of white supremacy and hatred. The flag was created to bring the confederates into battle during the Civil War. Though some claim it represents southern pride, other argue that it represents white supremacy, oppression and slavery. With a history filled with violence and hate, it’s difficult to separate the two and see the flag as anything positive.