So, the new black and brown stripes are intended to represent black and brown LGBTQ+ people and their communities. On the Kickstarter page to fund the Progress flag, Quasar described the black and brown stripes added to the rainbow Pride flag as, “ representing marginalized POC communities (brown, black).” An unnamed source involved with Philadelphia’s flag stated, “ The black and brown stripes are an inclusionary way to highlight black and brown LGBTQIA members within our community.”
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But these stripes are both literal and reductive, resulting in flags that are truly problematic. In contrast to the original, both the proposed new Pride flags include colored stripes intended to represent specific communities or identities. Note the eight stripes and that the red stripe is NOT at the top (as is considered protocol for flying the flag today). (June 25, 1978): one with stripes only (L) and one with stars and stripes (R). The two original rainbow flags as flown at United Nations Plaza, San Francisco, Calif. Everyone (and no one) ‘owns’ the rainbow Pride flag.Īfter its debut in 1978, the rainbow Pride flag was quickly embraced by a wide range of LGBTQ+ people and became a global symbol of the LGBTQ+ community. In the true spirit of community, the original rainbow Pride flag was intentionally never copyrighted, licensed, or trademarked by its creators. (Hot pink was then a difficult color for commercial fabric dyers and a seven stripe flag was not easily divided when Pride parade organizers wanted to have half the flag’s colors line each side of a later San Francisco Pride parade route.) The number of stripes was later reduced to six, for purely practical reasons related to the logistics of display and limits of mass manufacture. Though not original to its conception, those colors later were assigned the concepts of sex, life, healing, sun, serenity with nature, art, harmony, and spirit. The other - the one better known today - was comprised solely of horizontal stripes in rainbow colors.īoth flags had eight stripes: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. There were two versions: one based on the American flag, with rainbow stripes and blue field at the “hoist” (flagpole side) with white stars arranged in circles of eight. The flags they created were hand-dyed and sewn from cotton muslin fabric at San Francisco’s Gay Community Center on Grove Street. They love the rainbow.” But, in his 2019 memoir, Gilbert Baker claimed the idea for a rainbow design came to him from the “swirl of color and light” he experience on the dance floor one night at the Winterland Ballroom. In a 2018 Los Angeles Times interview, Segerblom recalled, “I wanted to make an American flag that was rainbow because I think it’s for everybody…My idea was just - color. The origins of the flags’ design are somewhat contested. Segerblom was an artist with skill dyeing fabrics McNamara was a clothing designer with sewing skills and Baker was a seamster and self-described drag queen who often appeared at protests and celebrations in hand-sewn dresses. Aided by friends and volunteers, three members of that committee were central to the first flags’ creation: Lynn Segerblom, James McNamara, and Gilbert Baker.
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The first rainbow Pride flags were created by the decorations committee of San Francisco’s 1978 Gay Freedom Day Planning Committee. This feature allowed the flag to be claimed as a symbol by a wide range of people - as it has been. O ne of the beauties of the original rainbow Pride flag was that each colored stripe represented an abstract concept, not a specific racial, ethnic, gender, or sexual identity. Pride flag in Pride parade, Chicago, IL (USA). And, on closer analysis, I came to understand them as narrow statements of identity politics that invite the very kinds of division they claim to remedy.
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Nevertheless, my initial reaction to both new flags was similar: they’re flagrantly disrespectful of an historic symbol of LGBTQ+ people, pride, and community. They respond to real, enduring problems and deserve to be taken seriously and considered on their merits. Unlike the original rainbow Pride flag, Quasar’s flag is not in the public domain.īoth proposals for new pride flags are well-intended: a desire to create an inclusive visual symbol of the diverse LGBTQ+ community and raise awareness of those still marginalized within that community and the wider society. Quasar has since commercialized that design, selling a range of products featuring the Progress flag and licensing it to other manufacturers. Quasar’s design has attracted a lot of buzz and a Kickstarter campaign to mass-produce the new flag raised almost twice as much as the original $14,000 goal. Xe (Quasar uses xe/xem pronouns) said the black stripe also represented, “ those living with AIDS, those no longer living, and the stigma surrounding them….” A PRIDE Flag Reboot.” CC (BY-NC-SA) license.