The British and American embassies in the United Arab Emirates faced backlash on social media and among locals for raising the pride flag.

The two embassies raised the pride flag along with their own national flags to celebrate Pride Month.

This is the first time an Arab Gulf country allows a pride flag to be raised in a country where same-sex relationships are illegal.

The British embassy in the UAE wrote on Twitter “June is #PrideMonth and around the world we celebrate the equality and visibility of #LGBT+ people. Today, we are flying the rainbow flag to affirm our pride in the UK’s diversity and our values of equality, inclusion and freedom.”

The US embassy also followed suit and posted a photo of its own flagpole flying the American and pride flags.

The embassy tweeted “On the anniversary of Stonewall, a milestone in the American civil rights movement, the U.S. Mission shows its support for the dignity and equality of all people.”

Notably, the Stonewall riots of 1969 are considered the birth of the gay rights movement.

In turn, controversy was sparked. A social media user wrote “Not sure what you are trying to accomplish with this. You know well enough how our culture & religion does not approve of such a thing.”

“But you still go ahead and provoke us. If your goal was to antagonize, mission accomplished.”

Another social media activist wrote “This is not acceptable. We consider this as an insult and disrespect.”

Under the US embassy tweet, a user wrote “Unacceptable. You should respect the feelings of the people of the country you're raising this flag and its religion which prohibits this.”

However, some users showed support for the decision.

A user said “Love this! Don’t understand why such a pretty flag offends some people. The idea of the flag is to show love and support for people it represents, if that’s not you, move on.”

According to Refugee Legal Aid Information, the UAE Penal Code is ambiguous as to whether homosexuality is punishable by death.