Lawsuit to move gay-pride flag at Lowenthal's DC office has an agenda

Three flags greet visitors who pass by Rep. Alan Lowenthal’s Washington D.C. office, and it’s the rainbow one— the flag that symbolizes gay pride and a hard-won path for LGBTQ civil rights— that has ignited a legal fight.
Last month, Lowenthal announced that he will challenge a lawsuit to move the so-called Pride flag from its designated spot outside his office. The congressman posted a copy of the court documents on his website. Plaintiff Chris Sevier, a former veteran and judge advocate general, according to court documents, filed the lawsuit in the U. S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
Lowenthal isn’t the only defendant named in the suit. Sevier also sued Reps. Donald Beyer, Susan Davis and Earl Blumenauer, all House Democrats who, like Lowenthal, also chose to display their own Pride flags outside of their own offices.
According to the court documents, Sevier is asking for the Pride flags to be moved from the hallway of the federal building and brought inside the respective congressmember’s office. He is seeking $1 in damages as well as attorney costs.
While that aspect of the lawsuit may seem simple, Sevier is also asking the U.S. District Court to consider his other concerns. Sevier requests in his lawsuit that the court declare homosexuality to be a religion. He further argues that the Pride flag should be considered a “’religious symbol’ for the homosexual denomination within the overall church of ‘western expressive individualism postmodern moral relativism.'”
Sevier appears to challenge the U. S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that allows same-sex couples to marry in every state. In his suit against Lowenthal and his fellow members of Congress, Sevier also asks for the U.S. District Court “to declare that the current legal definition of marriage is either too underinclusive under the 14th and 15th Amendments or it is too overinclusive under the 1st Amendment Establishment Clause.” If Sevier succeeds in getting the court to consider his arguments about the definition of marriage, he says the action “should force all of the states and federal government to only legally recognize actual marriage between ‘one man and one woman,’ which is the only form of marriage that actually serves a secular purpose.”
The congressman’s decision to display the flag is solely an individual choice. According to the press statement from Lowenthal’s office, members of Congress have fixtures outside their D.C. offices to accommodate up to three flags— the first two slots are allocated to the American flag and the flag of the congressman’s home state. The congressman decides what would fill that the third slot.
“I fly the Pride Flag outside my office in support of every LGBTQ individual— those in my district, those in our nation and those around the world,” Lowenthal said in a press release. “It is a symbol of both how far we have come on equality for all Americans and, as these incidents illustrate, how far we still have to go. It is a symbol of love, of peace and diversity. I will fight this hateful attempt to silence equality and justice. We have come too far to allow the voices of bigotry and hate to win.”
Lowenthal’s decision to display the rainbow flag at both of his offices in Washington and in Long Beach likely plays well in his home congressional district, since Long Beach, the major city in the district, is home to one of Southern California’s biggest LGBTQ communities. Robert Garcia is the city’s first openly gay mayor. Every year, Long Beach hosts a festival and parade to celebrate gay pride. After a vigorous debate in the community over whether the Pride flag should be displayed year round, city councilmembers unanimously agreed last year to display the City’s own Pride flag outside City Hall for a limited period of time while city leaders studied the issue.
Lowenthal’s colleagues have also criticized the attorney who chose to sue them over their flags. Rep. Davis, one of Lowenthal’s co-defendants in the suit, offered a brief statement against Sevier on her own website.
“It’s disheartening that in this day and age, this is still an issue,” Davis said in her statement. “Be assured that hateful lawsuits are not going to stop me from celebrating our nation’s diversity. If anything, this lawsuit is a reminder of the need for us to work even harder for full equality for all Americans.”
Numerous media sources have reported on Sevier’s other legal pursuits that specifically protest against the LGBTQ community. Most notably, several media outlets reported that Sevier filed a suit in Texas. He argued that if same-sex couples have the right to marry, he has the right to wed his laptop. He has filed similar lawsuits to marry his laptop in other states, including Florida and Utah.
In 2015, Sevier also sued Apple, who he said should have filters to block Internet pornography. According to several media reports, Sevier claimed in his suit that Apple failed to protect him from his own porn addiction on his laptop— possibly the same laptop he said he hoped to marry.
Besides his legal activities, Sevier has other interests. The court documents indicate that Sevier is also a lobbyist, recording artist and missionary.