Sadiq Khan promotes controversial LGBT flag display in London

London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday promoted a controversial display of more than 300 Progress Pride flags on an iconic street in the city that has prompted pushback from some Christians.

“Tomorrow at Pride in London we’ll send a message to the world: in our city you are free to be whoever you want to be, and love whoever you want to love. We must take a stand against those seeking to roll back hard-won rights,” wrote Khan, a Muslim who has served as mayor of London since 2016.

Tomorrow at Pride in London we’ll send a message to the world: in our city you are free to be whoever you want to be, and love whoever you want to love.

We must take a stand against those seeking to roll back hard-won rights. pic.twitter.com/zGPiOMQs3X

Get Our Latest News for FREE

Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) July 4, 2025

Khan posted a photo of the Progress Pride flags with which the Westminster City Council annually replaces the U.K.’s national Union Jack flags on Regent Street in late June.

Replies were disabled on Khan’s tweet, though many quote-tweeted it to offer their remarks, with several users likening the government-endorsed LGBT flag display to Nazi flag displays in Germany.

“Quite a display of government power,” Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said.

“‘The neutral public sphere,'” mocked Harvard legal scholar Adrian Vermeule.

“Tomorrow in London, they will send a message to the world: in their city, gay sex is the highest good to be celebrated and the pinnacle of their identity,” said Erik Reed, founder and lead pastor of The Journey Church in Lebanon, Tennessee. “Congratulations, London. Truly stunning and brave.”

Some users suggested Khan’s tweet indicates the British capital has been conquered by left-wing ideology.

Reed echoed the popular X account Libs of TikTok, which tweeted, “LONDON HAS BEEN CONQUERED RIP.”

“Be honest about all who have conquered London. Submission,” wrote WorldStrat President Jim Hanson.

William Wolfe, who serves as executive director at Center for Baptist Leadership, used Khan’s tweet to suggest members of his own denomination would support such a display in the name of pluralism.

“Postwar Liberal Baptists will see this and go, ‘Amen. That’s what pluralism and religious liberty is all about. Better this than scary Christian Nationalism,'” said Wolfe.

Joshua Charles, a Catholic author and former White House speechwriter, warned the behavior Khan is endorsing has eternal consequences.

“They will be ‘rolled back’ whether you like it or not, Mr. [Khan],” he said. “The options are: 1. Repentance now; or 2. Eternal punishment later.”

Christian Concern, a London-based nonprofit that often represents Christians alleging discrimination in the U.K. and elsewhere, last month threatened to sue the Westminster City Council for the display, claiming it’s an implicit threat to those who disagree with LGBT ideology.

“The Pride Progress flag [proclaims] a secular religious ideology which seeks to group together categories of people based upon their sexual preferences and identity: in doing this, it creates division between those people who do not recognize themselves under the umbrella of its myriad causes and those that do,” the group said.

“Those who do not join under the Flag have been considered as ‘hateful,’ ‘discriminatory,’ ‘intolerant’ and ‘bigoted.'”

Last November, Khan invited President Donald Trump attend a Pride festival in London and Republicans to worship with him at a mosque. Khan has denounced Trump as a racist, sexist and homophobe, and in 2019 Trump called him a “stone-cold loser” who should focus on the crime in his own city.