Appearing Tuesday morning on Fox News'
Fox & Friends, syndicated columnist Star Parker equated
the Confederate flag with the rainbow flag.
Parker, 50, is a conservative political
activist, the author of four books and the founder of the Center for
Urban Renewal and Education (CURE).
Parker appeared on the morning show to
discuss President Donald Trump's reaction to events over the weekend
in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a rally against the removal of a
statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee descended into violence
when an Ohio man drove a car into a group of counterprotesters,
killing one woman and wounding many more.
“We condemn in the strongest possible
terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many
sides, on many sides,” Trump said.
Democrats and Republicans criticized
the president for not specifically condemning white supremacists.
Trump did call out the groups two days later but reversed course at
an afternoon press conference on Tuesday, saying that the “alt-left”
was also to blame.
Parker, though, praised Trump, saying
that his initial comments were “on point.”
“He was exactly on point,” Parker
said. “There is an alt-right and there is an alt-left. And
this war between the two sides has been going on for a long time. …
The alt-left lost [in November] and they're pretty upset about it.”
She went on to equate the grievances of
white supremacists to the institutional discrimination faced by
sexual minorities in America.
“But you know what’s really
interesting and really incredibly ironic here is the same people that
are demanding that the Confederate flag comes down are the same
people that are insisting that the rainbow flag goes up. These two
flags represent the exact same thing,” Parker said. “That
certain people groups are not welcome here. So if Nancy Pelosi wants
to say that we’re going to start shutting down First Amendment
rights of a certain group of people, then what happens the next time
that the homosexuals want to walk through an American city and
protest and counter protesters come out?”