University of Chicago lab school removes LGBTQ pride flag over neutrality fears

The University of Chicago (UC) Laboratory Schools, an institution associated with the university, will no longer be flying an LGBTQ pride flag outside its courtyard after university administrators determined it would violate institutional neutrality.

The news was first reported by U-High Midway, the UC Laboratory High School student newspaper, ahead of Pride Month with a new statement from Interim Director Ethan Bueno de Mesquita explaining the decision on Monday.

“I think the idea of a student organization saying ‘We should fly the pride flag for Pride Month’ in some way is student speech and should be totally acceptable,” Bueno de Mesquita said. “I think the university saying that an observer who sees something flying from a flagpole and understands that to be a statement of the institution is a reasonable interpretation of how flagpoles operate, and so that doesn’t strike me as an unreasonable rule.”

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He added, “To be clear, the full membership of LGBTQ+ people in the Lab community is not a contested issue. It is a core value.”

The decision to remove the flag, which has flown in the same spot since 2022, came after administrators reviewed whether the LGBTQ pride flag aligned with the University of Chicago’s Kalven Committee report on neutrality.

“There is no mechanism by which it can reach a collective position without inhibiting that full freedom of dissent on which it thrives. It cannot insist that all of its members favor a given view of social policy; if it takes collective action, therefore, it does so at the price of censuring any minority who do not agree with the view adopted. In brief, it is a community which cannot resort to majority vote to reach positions on public issues,” the report read.

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It continued, “The neutrality of the university as an institution arises then not from a lack of courage nor out of indifference and insensitivity. It arises out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoints.”

Administrators also believed that the LGBTQ pride flag violated UC Laboratory Schools’ new policy on neutrality, which was established last month.

“The following Standards govern how contested issues are engaged in school environments. They are unified by a single overarching principle: educators do not use their adult authority to steer students toward or away from particular conclusions on contested issues, explicitly or implicitly,” the guidelines read.

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The University of Chicago’s American Association of University Professors chapter criticized the decision in an X post on Monday.

“You see the display of even basic symbols expressing the dignity of our students would be an unacceptable political stance and violation of neutrality. It has nothing to do with the national environment,” the organization wrote.

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Fox News Digital reached out to UC Laboratory Schools and the University of Chicago’s American Association of University Professors chapter for comment.