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The Coast Guard is downplaying its policy change to no longer refer to displays of swastikas and nooses as a “hate incident” — after it distributed new guidance to remove the term “hate incident” from its vocabulary altogether.
While the service previously identified displays of swastikas, nooses, Confederate flags, and other supremacist or antisemitic symbols as a “potential hate incident,” the new guidance now labels them as “potentially divisive symbols and flags.” The change was first reported by The Washington Post.
Despite the alteration, the Coast Guard claims that it remains committed to barring the symbols from the service and penalizing those who display them. Additionally, it said that it still considers the symbols “extremist imagery.”
“The claims that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a Thursday statement to Fox News Digital. “These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy.”
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“Any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished,” Lunday said. “The Coast Guard remains unwavering in its commitment to fostering a safe, respectful and professional workplace. Symbols such as swastikas, nooses and other extremist or racist imagery violate our core values and are treated with the seriousness they warrant under current policy.”
The new guidances state that the public display of the Confederate battle flag is banned and will be pulled from all Coast Guard workplaces, common access areas, public areas or operating facilities. Previous guidance also prohibited such public display of the Confederate battle flag.
Commanding officers and other leaders are instructed to inquire about public displays of other symbols identified as “potentially divisive,” and are granted the authority to direct or order the removal of those that negatively impact moral and mission readiness.
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The guidance also says it is completely eradicating the term “hate incident,” and that incidents that were previously handled as a “potential hate incident” will not be processed as a harassment report.
“Conduct previously handled as a potential hate incident, including those involving symbols widely identified with oppression or hatred, is processed as a report of harassment in cases with an identified aggrieved individual…The terminology ‘hate incident’ is no longer present in policy,” the new guidance said.
The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on why it removed the term “hate incident” from its new guidance.
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The new guidance also puts some limits on when harassment reports can be made. The updated policy dictates that reports of harassment, excluding those of sexual harassment, be made within 45 calendar days of an incident. The new guidance does say that there is some “discretion for reports to be accepted beyond this time frame.”
That’s a departure from the service’s previous policy, which did not have a deadline in place for reporting these incidents.
After the Post’s initial report on the update, the top Democrat on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, said there is no room for debate over whether nooses or swastikas are hate symbols.
“Lynching is a federal hate crime. The world defeated the Nazis in 1945. The debate on these symbols is over. They symbolize hate,” Larsen, whose committee has oversight authority over the Coast Guard, said in a statement Thursday. “Coast Guard: be better.”
The Coast Guard is the only branch of the military to fall under the Department of Homeland Security, but has launched initiatives including Force Design 2028 to revamp its organizational structure, acquisitions, contracting and technology, among other changes, to align more closely with other services that fall under the purview of the Department of War.
The Coast Guard said that its updates on its harassment policy were made in alignment with orders from President Donald Trump and the Pentagon.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on whether it was eyeing similar changes in policy for its military branches. However, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth instructed the Pentagon to conduct a review of its hazing and harassment policies in September.
The Pentagon also has its own set of extremism guidelines, which effectively bans displaying Confederate flags or those with a swastika on them. Only preapproved flags, including state flags or military service flags, are permitted.
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