Photo by Ted Eytan.

Congressman Don Beyer says he put a rainbow flag outside his office on Capitol Hill a few months ago, shortly after he learned that a visitor to the Capitol had ripped down and stomped on a rainbow flag hanging outside Congressman Alan Lowenthal’s (D-CA) office.

The flag, which represents LGBT pride, has “a really good, simple, positive message,” the Virginia representative says. “We had at least one openly gay person working in the office and I thought it was really important for him to feel like it was a welcoming place.”

“Many people mention [the flag] when they visit, all in a positive way,” Beyer says.

But this week, Beyer learned about a lawsuit filed against him, Lowenthal. and two other representatives in federal court, calling for them to take down the flags, which plaintiff Chris Sevier calls unconstitutional.

Sevier claims the rainbow flag is a religious symbol of the “homosexual denomination within the overall church of ‘western expressive individualism postmodern moral relativism,'” and that it “promotes obscenity and sexual exploitation.”

In addition to seeking a judge to tell Beyer, Lowenthal, Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and Susan Davis (D-CA) to take down the rainbow flags outside their office (hanging them inside would be fine, the suit says, and “the American flag can remain”), he also wants the judge to declare that homosexuality is a religion.

Beyer calls the lawsuit “absurd.” He characterizes the suit’s legal claim that “being proud of tolerance for people’s sexual orientation is somehow a violation of the separation between church and state” as one with “no merit.”

While the suit was filed back in March, Buzzfeed reporter Dominic Holden brought it to renewed light this week.

“We looked at [the lawsuit] and said, ‘This poor guy needs help,'” says Beyer.

Sevier describes himself in the lawsuit as a former combat veteran, lobbyist (though he does not appear on the Center for Responsive Politics’ lobbying database), missionary, electronic dance music recording artist, and more.

He’s also unsuccessfully tried to marry his laptop in at least three states as a protest of same-sex marriage.

According to The Daily Beast:

Sevier has sued dozens of people and companies in federal court including, but not limited to Apple Computers, Google, BlackBerry, Android, Microsoft, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Planned Parenthood, Samsung, Verizon, xBox, A&E Networks, his ex-wife, several state governors, the U.S. government as a whole, and former President Barack Obama specifically. Most of the cases have been dismissed. Others are still open.

“There has never been a lawsuit that I’ve been engaged in where I did not get exactly what I wanted. Whether I win or lose, I got what I wanted,” said Sevier.

To date, a review of his federal pleadings shows he hasn’t won any.

Beyer says that Sevier’s suit is an “outlier event.” In the months since he started displaying the rainbow flag outside of the office, none of his colleagues, Democrat or Republican, have asked him to take it down.

The flag means “hey, let’s live and let live,” he says. “There are incredible varieties of human experience. Let’s respect all of the ones that don’t hurt other people.”

He says that the House Clerk’s office is taking care of the lawsuit. “We’re hoping this is a short-term nuisance,” says Beyer. “If anything, it gives us a small chance to reinforce with pride the commitment to tolerance, to openness, to inclusion.”