First Amendment Rights!

Trump & Company are shredding the Constitution! And the MAGA crowd are cheering!

Decorated FBI agent trainee fired over Pride flag warns new ‘Lavender Scare’ is spreading ‘like wildfire’

“People immediately started scouring their desks of Pride flags, anything personal in nature,” after Kash Patel terminated him, David Maltinsky told The Advocate.

The Advocate

By Christopher Wiggins

November 19 2025

An FBI special agent trainee who was terminated three weeks before graduation from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, says his October firing over a Pride flag display sparked immediate fear across all 56 FBI field offices. He believes that it reflects a broader political purge under FBI Director Kash Patel. In an interview with The Advocate, 36-year-old David Maltinsky, who is suing the federal government over his unlawful termination, described a workforce suddenly afraid to be visibly LGBTQ+.

Wait a minute! The Pride flag is political? What party does it represents? It represents people not a party! There are liberal gays, there are conservative gays, and there are non-affiliated gays. Being LGBTQ+ is not a political party!!!!!

A Lavender Scare in the 21st century

“There’s definitely concern in the federal government, especially the FBI, that a Lavender Scare has been sparked,” Maltinsky said. “I’m hoping this lawsuit will put an end to that, but the reality is, when I was fired and this political signage was in fact a Pride flag, that sent a shock wave throughout the bureau.”

Inside the FBI, news spreads fast. “We do a great job of keeping our work secrets from the public,” he said. “Internally, we can share a lot. The grapevine spreads quickly.” Within hours of his firing, LGBTQ+ employees removed desk decor, scrubbed cubicles, and checked on one another’s workspaces for anything that could be interpreted as political. “It spread like wildfire,” he said.

"That is not right! That is unconstitutional discrimination and a denial of our fundamental rights to free speech. The Supreme Court has affirmed the right to symbolic expression since the 1930s in the landmark Stromberg v. California case, which struck down a ban on 'Red' flags during the 'Red Scare.'

When we display the Pride flag, we are expressing a protected 'viewpoint' concerning the dignity and rights of a people. Those who oppose the flag are attempting to re-frame a civil rights issue as merely a 'political' debate—but this distinction does not strip the flag of its First Amendment protection. As long as other symbols are allowed, singling out the Pride flag is illegal viewpoint discrimination."