When news first came out that the Coast Guard had “revised language” in their internal guidelines that no longer classified a Nazi Swastika, Confederate flags, or nooses as hate symbols, the public was outraged. But after the news was leaked several members of the Donald Trump administration came forward with a defense of the service, prompting the Coast Guard to finally respond.
The controversy began when the Coast Guard did a routine update of their guidelines. The Washington Post reported that in this new update they shifted certain “emblems of fascism” into a new section that’s simply referred to as “potentially divisive.” When they were in hate symbols, they were considered intolerable and you ran the chance of being discharged if you were caught with it.
