A judge in Texas says she was forced to remove a rainbow pride flag from her courtroom after a defense attorney complained

• Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who presides over Bexar County Court 13 in San Antonio, Texas, told NBC News that she had to remove a rainbow flag from her courtroom after a defense attorney filed a complaint.
• The State Commission on Judicial Conduct conducted an investigation into allegations of judicial misconduct and determined the flag had to be removed, she said.
• She called the situation xenophobic and gender-based discrimination and has filed an appeal.
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An openly gay judge in Texas says she was forced to remove a rainbow pride flag from her courtroom after a defense lawyer filed a complaint about it.

Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez told NBC News that she was told to remove the flag and a traditional Mexican cloth called a sarape, as well as rainbow-patterned eyeglasses, a pen, and a mouse pad, after the State Commission on Judicial Conduct conducted an investigation into allegations of judicial misconduct.

Gonzalez, who presides over Bexar County Court 13 in San Antonio, Texas, called the situation xenophobic and gender-based discrimination.

"It felt like they were trying to shame me and bully me into not expressing who I truly am," she told NBC News.

Defense attorney Flavio Hernandez, who filed the complaint against Gonzalez in August, told NBC News that he feared his clients could face "implied authority of this unofficial flag symbolizing the Judge's personal bias."

"Other flags expressing personal bias such as white supremacy (swastikas), or black slavery (confederacy) are also divisive and inappropriate symbols in our courtrooms," Hernandez said in a written statement to NBC News. "I may not be able to turn the dark tide of legalized immorality infecting our nation like a virus, but in my small way, I voiced my support of traditional American family values."

The pride flag has represented LGBTQ equality and inclusion since it was first designed in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker for the San Francisco Pride Parade. The most common variant of the contemporary flag shows the colors of a rainbow, with red on the top.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct ruled in favor of Hernandez last month, and Gonzalez filed an appeal on Friday. The commission told NBC News that confidentiality rules didn't permit it to confirm or deny anything related to the issue.

She called the complaint "homophobia in the most transparent, clear definition."

She said the rainbow flag she displays was a gift from a local LGBTQ organization when she was sworn in. When she had to remove it from her courtroom, she hung it from her chamber door.

"I carry a lot of pride on my shoulders from the LGBT community to have me up on the bench," she told NBC News. "It was important to the community for me to be there and to have that visibility."

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