A contributor to One America News (OAN) has been exposed by social media users as “homophobic” after a wild rant about a Pride flag.
Fringe commentator Alison Steinberg expressed her disgust at the flag on Huntington Beach, California, on Saturday in a now deleted Instagram post.
Pointing at the rainbow-coloured flag behind her, Steinberg said she “returned home to this f****** b********”.
“What the hell is that?” Steinberg asked, before suggesting LGBT+ people represented by the Pride flag were not “hard working American people”.
“Huntington Beach is the town of good ol’ fashioned, hard-working American people!,” she yelled.
Steinberg also said Huntington Beach “never shut” down during the Covid pandemic, in apparent pride.
She did however call for local leaders to be “fired” for allowing the Pride flag to fly during Pride month, and said the acknowledgement of the local LGBT+ community was a “disgrace”.
“This is a disgrace to our city and it should be taken down immediately,” said Steinberg in the now-viral video, which appeared to have been removed from Instagram.
The 35-second rant has had nearly 2.5m views on Twitter after it was shared by Democrat attorney Ron Filipkowski. Hundreds commented on the footage in shock.
Among those to lambast Steinberg were MSNBC’s Katie Phang, who wrote: “She is TRIGGERED”.
Emma Kennedy, a British actress and screenwriter, tweeted: “Hate filled homophobe says what?”
Composer and animator Quelle Christopher meanwhile argued that Steinberg’s outrage “ wasn’t a ‘fringe’ message. This is gang confidence”.
“I think it’s important to note her age,” he tweeted on Monday. “I’m seeing a lot of folks go ‘it’s these old white men’. Which is TRUE. But don’t sleep on the millions of young people who support them with the same hate and years on the clock.”
Reports of attacks on LGBT+ Americans have risen over the past year following the passing of laws restricting trans youth from school sports by Republicans at state level.
The party has also moved to ban books covering LGBT+ topics from libraries in Texas, outlawed the discussion of LGBT+ issues in Florida’s schools, and falsely accused LGBT+ people and their supporters as being “groomers”.
As Mediaite reported, Steinberg has previously joked while on OAN that supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia was “gay”, amid criticism among sections of the right for US President Joe Biden’s support for Kyiv.
OAN, which was founded in 2013 before becoming a pro-Trump news network, has been approached for comment on Steinberg’s Pride flag rant.
