For years, the Coast Guard’s policy on harassment plainly stated that incidents of hatred and prejudice “have no place” in the service.
But last week, the Coast Guard issued a new directive raising the bar for proving that displaying hate symbols in public merits punishment. Among several changes, the policy downgraded swastikas and nooses from symbols of hatred to merely “potentially divisive.”
The revisions set off a backlash. Seth Levi of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group, called the new policy “a national embarrassment.”
Just hours later, on Thursday night, the Coast Guard’s leadership gave assurance that the public display of hateful symbols would continue to be banned. But whether a service member could display such symbols in private remained unclear.
The Homeland Security Department, which the service falls under, issued a further clarification over the weekend, saying in a statement that the symbols have no place in the Coast Guard, including “in private.”
The days of back-and-forth statements created confusion about what changed in the new policy, which is slated to enter into force on Dec. 15.
What was the policy in the past?
While the Coast Guard is part of the Homeland Security Department, it is a branch of the armed forces and its members are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Over the years, the Pentagon has issued directives or instructions that categorize supremacist beliefs — whether racial, ethnic or religious — as extremist and established orders to deal with extremism that carry the force of military law.
Those directives are often reviewed and updated after racist incidents and violence in the ranks, such as the 1995 murder of a Black couple outside Fort Bragg, N.C., by two white supremacist soldiers in the 82nd Airborne.
In February 2023, the Coast Guard issued an instruction to combat harassment and mistreatment of members of what the service called “protected categories.” That included “race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age, disability, genetic information, marital status, parental status, political affiliation” and whistle-blowers among others.
The Coast Guard’s policy update, which was signed this month, removed gender identity and political affiliation from that list.
The new document specified that nooses and swastikas would remain banned in public areas. But displaying them in public, it said, would be considered “divisive” only if they affected “good order and discipline, unit cohesion, command climate, morale or mission effectiveness.”
According to the new instruction, the term “hate incident” was “no longer present in policy.”
Why did the Coast Guard make the changes?
Neither the Coast Guard nor the Homeland Security Department offered an explanation for why the “hate incident” category was eliminated, nor why officials felt the need to create a distinction between public and private displays of symbols like nooses and swastikas.
The ban on gender identity issues, however, came straight from the White House.
Shortly after his inauguration in January, President Trump issued an executive order banning what he called “gender ideology” from the federal government. The Pentagon followed that by banning transgender troops from serving in the military.
According to the office of the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, the service’s decision to remove gender identity from the list of “protected” characteristics was in line with the White House’s orders.
The service, however, declined to explain other changes in the new instruction concerning bullying and hazing.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced that drill instructors would once again be allowed to “put their hands on recruits” and said that profanity would be allowed in basic training, all of which had long been banned by military leaders for being counterproductive and abusive.
What was the Coast Guard’s response to the criticism?
The service’s acting top officer, Admiral Lunday, released a one-and-a-half page memo on Thursday night that said “the Coast Guard does not tolerate the display of hateful or divisive flags, including those affiliated with oppression or hatred.”
“These symbols reflect hateful and prohibited conduct that undermines unit cohesion,” it added.
But the memo did not address the new directive’s apparent allowance for those displays to take place in private, or its sections on bullying and hazing.
On Saturday, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, issued a statement that made it clear that private displays of hate symbols were prohibited and would remain banned.
“The display of divisive and hate symbols, including in private, violates our core values and has no place in the Coast Guard,” she said. “The men and women of the Coast Guard are held to a higher standard, on duty or off duty.”
Ms. McLaughlin also said that the commandant had banned bullying and hazing.
“The Coast Guard does not condone or authorize acts of aggression with the intent of harming or aggrieving any member, physically or psychologically,” she said in the statement.
It is unclear whether the new instruction will be rewritten before it takes effect next month.
John Ismay is a reporter covering the Pentagon for The Times. He served as an explosive ordnance disposal officer in the U.S. Navy.
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