The Pride Flag
a matter of unity vs. perceptions of non-inclusionThe original flag - a need for a symbol
The Pride flag as we knew it was initially designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978 when Harvey Milk asked him to create a banner to create a feeling of pride for the Gay community. It was intended to replace the negative connotations of a pink triangle, which the Gay community used then. The triangle harkened back to the dark days of Nazi homosexual concentration camps.
Rather than a banner, Baker started focusing on the idea of a flag since the recent bicentennial reinforced how the American flag generated universal feelings of pride. Baker was then to be inspired by "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the Wizard of Oz, which ultimately led to the rainbow concept.
The first Pride flags were sewn on a home sewing machine and included eight stripes. Baker never intended for each stripe to represent a sub-set of the LGBTQ+ community. Each color of stripe represented a concept relative to humanity overall - red for life, orange for healing, yellow for light, green for nature, indigo blue for serenity and purple for the spirit of the LGBTQ community.
The original design also included hot pink which represented sex, and turquoise for art. However, once the flag went into mass production, Baker soon discovered that he needed to abandon the pink stripe due to the high cost of that color material. Then, to simplfy the desgin to an even six colors the turquois stripe was also dropped the following year. The back-story was that organizers of the protest and memorial march for Harvey Milk wanted an even number of stripes - so that they could drape each side ot the street in three colors, essentially splitting the flag in half for the purpose of the march.
The original Pride flag is now on display in a San Francisco museum.
The Castro Merchants suggested to the advisory board that a second flagpole be installed, saying in a statement that “we believe the creation of an alternative space would best reflect our two sincere beliefs: symbols can change over time yet queer history matters.
Editors Opinion:
The Pride Flag has evolved into an identity entitlement flag.
The pride flag, designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978, included the colors of the rainbow, each representing an element of life. Since then, the Pride flag has evolved to the point where it holds little similarity to the original rainbow flag. Much debate has developed over this evolution of the flag. The initial rainbow design was an outstanding, all-inclusive representation of the LGBTQ+ community since each color represented a different facet of life and nature. Mr. Baker did not intend to describe any ethnic or sub-group, as many believe. Plus, the rainbow was a simple graphic and easily recognized, even from afar.
In 2017 Thinking the stripes somehow represented ethnic groups, (they didn't) the city of Philadelphia added black and brown stripes to characterize the black and brown communities. In 2019, graphic designer Daniel Quasar added pink and light blue stripes within a chevron pattern to be more inclusive of transgender people and referred to it as the Progress Flag. THEN in 2021, yet another addition was made by intersex columnist Valentino Vecchietti by adding a yellow field with a purple circle within the chevron pattern to represent the intersex community. Again, these additions ignore that the colors didn't represent ANY group but rather abstract elements of the human spirit. Also, the newly added features create a complex design, not easily recognizable and difficult to view from a distance.
Interestingly, each new subgroup felt they needed their piece of a long-held cherished symbol even though they have their flags. It boils down to an argument- does the new addition represent inclusiveness- or entitlement? No longer expressing universal pride, the new design has become a political symbol facilitating identity devisivness.
Everyone is entitled to fly the flag of their choosing. I and many from my generation will always display the original flag because we remember the flag was never intended to represent different groups - but to universally foster pride in who you are regardless of skin color or sub-group orientation.
Adding more colors to the flag results in a weaker overall symbol that arguable promotes factionalism rather than solidarity—division instead of community.