Assembly Passes Bills to Restrict Pride Flags

The door to the Wisconsin State Assembly on Monday, July 14, 2025, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

In their first floor session since passing a state budget, GOP lawmakers in the state Assembly approved bills Thursday that would bar state buildings from waving LGBTQ+ Pride flags, further restrict health care access for undocumented people and require state employees to work in-person.

They also approved a resolution to mark Hispanic Heritage Month brought forward by a lawmaker who recently split with Democratic Party leaders. That resolution was at the heart of a dispute that led Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, to depart from her party’s caucus.

While debate spanned several hours, the tone was relatively subdued, with lawmakers reflecting on the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and on the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.

Bills about pride flags, BadgerCare for immigrants

One approved bill would prohibit most flags from being flown from state buildings, with the exception of U.S. and Wisconsin state flags, and relevant state agency flags. The bill would also exempt flags that honor veterans, tribal nations, flags of other states or nations for ceremonial purposes, safety flags, or flags for schools or universities.

The bill’s lead author, Rep. Jerry O’Connor, R-Fond du Lac, said the idea is to promote unity, and argued that other symbols on state buildings sow division.

“We need to be the ones who lead by setting aside political and partisan differences, stop the gaslighting, stop the hateful rhetoric and stop the excessive division,” said O’Connor.

Democratic critics of the bill argued that it primarily targets LGBTQ+ pride flags, which Gov. Tony Evers has ordered flown over the state Capitol during the month of June throughout his tenure.

“As a body, we should be promoting inclusiveness,” said Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee. “These symbolic acts do matter.”

The proposal comes as some state agencies have rethought their approach to flying Pride flags in an effort to comply with President Donald Trump’s directives on gender and diversity issues. That includes the Wisconsin Historical Society, which did not raise a flag during June during LGBTQ+ pride month. Leaders there said they were trying to apply a “consistent approach,” and not give the impression of participating in advocacy.

Republicans also approved a bill to bar public money from going toward health coverage for people in the United States without authorization. That would prohibit immigrants lacking permanent legal status from enrolling in BadgerCare, Wisconsin’s version of Medicaid. While state law already prevents undocumented people from doing so, the bill’s champions described the proposal as a preemptive measure to prevent that from being changed.

“To me, this bill makes absolutely complete common sense,” said Rep. Brent Jacobson, R-Mosinee. “You don’t get the benefits of those who are here legally by taking their tax dollars, taking tax dollars out of the pockets of hard working Wisconsinites.”

Jacobson argued that the prospect of expanding access to health care to include people who are not authorized residents would jack up costs for everyone.

“It’s this simple. The more you expand welfare, especially in the health care sector, all you’re doing is continuing to push those costs onto the backs of the private sector, the hard-working middle class that’s struggling to have some kind of insurance,” he added.

Democrats called the bill a distraction and a response to a problem that doesn’t exist.

“This bill is being voted on today to do one thing: to get a headline for Republicans who, instead of actually solving problems, are making things up for elections,” said Rep. Angela Stroud, D-Ashland. “We don’t need to pass a law to prevent us from using state money to provide health care to undocumented people, because we don’t do that in Wisconsin.”

Rep. Ann Roe, D-Janesville, argued that it could sow confusion about federal law that says all people in the United States, regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay, can access emergency health treatment.

“Causing such fear in immigrant populations will lead to what might have been perhaps treatable conditions, escalating,” she said. “Fear that this bill creates will prevent those from suffering from treatable conditions to wait till it’s almost too late.”

Dueling Hispanic Heritage Month resolutions

Lawmakers also approved Ortiz-Velez’s resolution honoring Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 as Hispanic Heritage Month in Wisconsin. Coauthored with Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, the resolution differed from one put forward by the Democratic Party’s recently formed Hispanic Legislative Caucus. Ortiz-Velez’s frustration with not being included in the drafting of that resolution exploded into a full conflict, and a split with the Assembly Democratic caucus last week.

Despite that conflict, the resolution had bipartisan backing and was adopted on a voice vote. The passage was not without some tension, as Democratic supporters of the other resolution were cut off during debate.

The Hispanic Legislative Caucus’ version said “the story of Hispanics and Latinos is the story of America,” and promoted the contributions of Latinos to American economy and culture and in the military. It also honored two prominent Latino Wisconsinites, both Democrats: Judge Pedro Colón, who was the first Latino person elected to the state Legislature, and JoCasta Zamarripa, who was the first Latino woman elected to the state Legislature.

The version passed on Thursday uplifted Latinos’ contribution to the agricultural economy, arguing that Latinos “live and work all across the state, enriching and revitalizing rural and urban communities alike,” and serving in the military and public service. It did not name any Latino Wisconisnites specifically.

In-person work, tobacco bars and ‘deep fakes’

Also on Thursday, lawmakers approved bills to:

• Require state workers to work in-person 80 percent of the time, with an exemption for workers who already had remote agreements in place before the COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to work from home. Gov. Tony Evers has expressed that he won’t support the proposal, which he says forces many workers from across the state to have to be present in Milwaukee or Madison.
• Exempt tobacco bars from Wisconsin’s 15-year-old public smoking ban. The bill would allow new tobacco or cigar bars to form, as long as they don’t also sell food. Older tobacco bars were grandfathered in under the public smoking ban that was enacted in 2009.
• Make it a felony to make or distribute “deep fake” nude images of people without their consent, or with intent to harass or harm. Those are synthetic representations of real people that seem realistic. It would also be a misdemeanor to share without consent such materials that were originally produced willingly, an act that is sometimes referred to as “revenge porn.”

Listen to the WPR report

Assembly passes bills to restrict Pride flags, Medicaid access for undocumented people was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.