Idaho House Advances Bill To Ban MAGA Flags in Public Schools

HB10 will restrict the display of any ideological pride flag in public schools

The Idaho House Education Committee advanced a bill last week that bans ideological flags from public schools. While supporters framed the legislation as a way to remove LGBTQ+ pride flags from classrooms, the law’s broad language extends to all ideological pride flags, including ones cherished by Trump supporters, patriot movements, and Christian nationalists.

If passed, the ban would apply to MAGA flags, Gadsden flags, Confederate flags, and even the Pine Tree Flag ("Appeal to Heaven"), a symbol frequently used by Christian nationalists. For all the talk in committee about “protecting children from sexual ideologies,” no one mentioned that this bill also silences the symbols many conservatives hold dear.

What the Far-Right Won’t Tell You

Groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation and Stop Idaho RINOs have been vocal in their support of this bill, sharing posts from anti-LGBTQ+ activists like Libs of TikTok to celebrate the effort. What they aren’t telling their MAGA supporters is that this legislation would ban the same flags they’ve spent years defending.

Not long ago, these same groups rallied behind Conner Boyack, a conservative activist in Utah, after a Colorado school punished a student for displaying a Gadsden flag patch on his backpack. The incident went viral, prompting outrage from right-wing commentators who claimed the punishment was an attack on free speech.

Yet here in Idaho, the IFF and their allies are supporting a bill that would codify such a ban into law. MAGA flags, Gadsden flags, and other patriotic symbols would be prohibited in classrooms alongside LGBTQ+ pride flags. The hypocrisy is staggering, but the silence from these groups is telling.

House Bill 10 - Adds to existing law to allow public schools to display only certain flags and banners on school property and to prohibit schools from displaying certain flags and banners.

What the Bill Really Does

Despite the focus on LGBTQ+ pride flags during testimony, the language of the bill is clear: it bans all ideological pride flags. If passed, Idaho schools will be prohibited from displaying:

• LGBTQ+ pride flags

• MAGA and Trump flags

• Gadsden flags ("Don’t Tread on Me")

• Confederate flags

• BLM flags

• Pine Tree flags ("Appeal to Heaven")

This sweeping ban doesn’t protect students from “ideological indoctrination”—it erases freedom of expression altogether.

HB 10 Would Ban All of These Ideological Pride Flags

Selective Outrage and Culture War Optics

The bill’s supporters, including the IFF, have built their political brand on opposing government overreach and defending free speech. Yet they are now championing legislation that expands government control into classrooms and silences symbols they claim to protect.

The inconsistency is glaring. When a conservative student in Colorado faced discipline for displaying a Gadsden flag, the IFF and its allies were quick to condemn it as “woke censorship.” But when Idaho Republicans propose legislation that goes even further, they’re silent—or worse, cheering.

This isn’t about principles. It’s about using culture wars to score political points.

This bill exposes blatant hypocrisy in Idaho politics. Groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation, Stop Idaho RINOs, Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, and the Idaho Freedom Caucus are happy to use symbols like the Gadsden flag or MAGA imagery when it benefits their cause. Still, they are just as willing to ignore those symbols when it suits their agenda.

While claiming to champion local control as a conservative principle, these same groups now seek to strip it from locally elected school boards and dictate how schools across the state are run.

Idahoans deserve better than this performative culture war. This legislation doesn’t protect our Constitutionally protected God-given right to freedom of speech—it restricts it. It also reveals just how far some will go to control the narrative, even at the expense of their values, if they ever had any, to begin with.

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