The FBI isn’t commenting after several of the law enforcement agency’s employees participated in an LGBTQ ”Pride” parade in West Hollywood, California. 

At least a dozen uniformed FBI agents, some carrying handguns, marched Sunday in the city’s annual “Pride” parade, according to video posted on X. 

The FBI employees waved LGBTQ rainbow flags or the pink and blue flag of the transgender movement. One wore a shirt emblazoned with a rainbow-colored version of the letters spelling FBI. 

Individual FBI employees have participated in Pride parades before in the past five or more years in California. 

The Daily Signal asked the FBI to comment on its policy regarding employees’ political advocacy and whether it is concerned about alienating some Americans. The law enforcement agency didn’t respond to the request before publication. 

One authority on executive branch policy said the FBI agents’ behavior is “an abuse of their positions.”

“Socially liberal priorities, especially on sexuality and gender, are deeply divisive and irrelevant to the mission of the FBI,” said GianCarlo Canaparo, a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

Although federal law allows FBI agents to advocate some causes, that doesn’t make it a wise move, Canaparo argued. 

“The reason that these agents wore their FBI gear to the parade is to identify their employer with their political views, as if the FBI favors their views over others’ views,” the legal scholar told The Daily Signal. “That’s an abuse of their positions, and it further blemishes the FBI’s already tarnished reputation for neutrality.” 

“To begin the process of restoring its muddied reputation, the FBI should forbid its employees from dragging its name into divisive political disputes,” Canaparo said. 

Bureau employees joined California’s Pride celebrations in the past, including in July 2019 in San Diego and during Pride Month in 2023 in San Francisco. 

Participation by FBI employees Sunday comes after President Joe Biden’s administration warned of possible security threats for LGBTQ events ahead of Pride Month this June. 

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and State Department all posted statements last month urging the public to safeguard against violence or “foreign terrorist” activity directed at LGBTQ-related gatherings.