Senate Leaders Condemn Embrace of Hate Symbols by Trump’s DHS

HARTFORD – Today, Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven), Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), Senator Martha Marx (D-New London), and Senator Paul Honig (D-Harwinton) strongly denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s recent U.S. Coast Guard policy revision that removed the explicit designation of swastikas and nooses as “hate symbols” and instead labeled these symbols as “potentially divisive.”

“Swastikas and nooses are unmistakable representations of hatred, terror, and historical atrocity,” said Senate President Looney. “The decision to soften their classification is a political choice and part of a disturbing pattern of minimizing the significance of the symbols of hatred to appease extremists by President Trump. Coast Guard members and the public deserve leadership that stands clearly and unequivocally against hate, especially as antisemitism and racially motivated violence rise across the country.”

“An administration that thinks a swastika and a noose are only potentially divisive shows the rot of hatred that infests the highest levels of the Trump administration,” said Senate Majority Leader Duff. “Connecticut rejects hate and the violence it enables and stands with service members who deserve clear moral leadership from Republicans in Washington.”

“Rebranding symbols of lynching and genocide as merely ‘divisive’ is despicable,” said Senator Marx. “I wish the Trump administration would spend more time supporting our men and women serving our country instead of enabling hate that endangers them and their families.”

“I struggle to understand what message the Department of Homeland Security sought to send when it went out of its way to normalize explicit hate symbols like nooses and swastikas,” Senator Honig said. “This change helps no one and addresses no legitimate concern. I’ve heard no rational defense of this policy, not in normal times and certainly not amid surging antisemitism and the recent mass murder at a Hanukkah event in Sydney. We must be better than this, and I call on the administration to immediately rescind this directive and prioritize the safety and dignity of all Americans.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kevin Coughlin | kevin.coughlin@cga.ct.gov | 203-710-0193