Coast Guard clarifies hate symbol policy

References in U.S. Coast Guard policy calling hate symbols “potentially divisive” were removed Thursday, and a U.S. senator said she was lifting a hold she had placed on a nomination for the service’s top job.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said on social media that the latest changes were made so no one can “misrepresent” the branch’s position.

“The pages of superseded and outdated policy will be completely removed from the record so no press outlet, entity or elected official may misrepresent the Coast Guard to politicize their policies and lie about their position on divisive and hate symbols,” Noem said.

The move appears to cap off back-and-forth revisions to Coast Guard policy on swastikas, nooses and other hate symbols, which has sparked an uproar. The Department of Homeland Security has said there “was never a ‘downgrade’” in policy language.

Noem’s announcement came a day after Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada said she was holding up the nomination of Adm. Kevin Lunday for Coast Guard commandant because leadership appeared to have “backtracked” on a commitment that swastikas and nooses are considered hate symbols and prohibited from display.

Rosen said Thursday on social media that she was lifting the hold and looked forward to working with Lunday to continue strengthening anti-harassment policy at the Coast Guard.

“While I continue to have reservations about the process by which this happened and the confusion created by leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, I am pleased to see that the policy now directly refers to stronger language against swastikas and nooses,” she said.

The Senate confirmed Lunday as the Coast Guard’s new commandant Thursday night.

Noem called the delay of Lunday’s nomination a “politicized holdup,” saying it had gone on long enough and he should be confirmed without delay.

“He has given nearly 39 years of distinguished service to the Coast Guard, this country, and the American people,” she said.

The Coast Guard’s planned policy change calling hate symbols “potentially divisive” emerged publicly last month. It stopped short of banning them, instead saying that commanders could take steps to remove them from public view and that the rule did not apply to private spaces, such as family housing.

DHS has said the change “strengthens our ability to report, investigate, and prosecute those who violate longstanding policy.”

The Coast Guard said on social media that it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward hate symbols, extremist ideology, and any conduct that undermines our core values. We prohibit the display or promotion of hate symbols in any form. Any suggestion otherwise is false.”

The Washington Post first reported the latest developments.

Military Times editor Beth Sullivan contributed to this report.