It's Time Black and Brown People Be Included in the Pride Flag

A 2018 redesign including Black, Brown, and trans pride stripes is going viral, with some calling for it to become the new symbol of the LGBTQ+ community.
A proposed design for a new Pride flag.
Daniel Quasar/Facebook

 

As America grieves George Floyd’s death, some say the LGBTQ+ community can honor his memory by ensuring that Black and Brown people are included on the Pride flag.

A redesigned update to the iconic rainbow banner went viral on Twitter earlier this month amid nationwide protests over police brutality continued for the fourth straight day. Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed Black man, was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25 after an officer responding to a 911 call over counterfeit money kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, asphyxiating him and ultimately ending his life.

Derek Chauvin, the former patrolman directly responsible for Floyd's death, has been charged with second-degree murder, while the other three former officers — Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng — have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Chris J. Godfrey, a journalist for the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, tweeted an image of the inclusive flag, which includes black and brown stripes representing people of color, as well as pink, white, and blue stripes in a nod to the Trans Pride banner. The flag was designed by Portland, Oregon-based artist Daniel Quasar in 2018 following a successful Kickstarter campaign.

“With everything happening right now this year feels like a good moment to make this flag the mainstream, default symbol for the [LGBTQ+] community,” Godfrey wrote.

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Others also advocated that LGBTQ+ communities embrace Quasar’s banner during the 50th anniversary of Pride month, as a tribute to activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera who were instrumental in the 1969 leading the riots at the Stonewall Inn. LGBTQ+ Stem, which advocates for queer and trans inclusion in fields like science and technology, noted that the LGBTQ+ community “wouldn’t have Pride today” without the activism of transgender people of color.

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Quasar’s design, which is formally known as the Progress Pride Flag, was intended to build on a similar banner adopted by the city of Philadelphia in 2017. The Philly Pride flag, which added black and brown stripes, was created in partnership with Amber Hikes, who served at the time as the executive director of the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs. 

In a statement posted to the campaign’s Kickstarter page, Quasar said the goal was to emphasize “what is important in our current community climate,” namely the inclusion of Black, Brown, and trans people long marginalized by the mainstream LGBTQ+ movement.

“We still have movement forward to make,” Quasar wrote at the time. “There still is work to be done. I wanted to highlight that.”

The Progress Pride Flag and Philadelphia’s Pride banner made waves at the time, with critics claiming that Gilbert Baker’s 1978 design, which has since been included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, didn’t need to be updated. The six stripes in the widely popularized rainbow flag of today each represent an idea that resonates with LGBTQ+ people: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for peace, and purple for spirit.

But Baker’s flag has changed numerous times throughout the years. The first flag unveiled 42 years ago had eight stripes, with hot pink representing sex and turquoise for magic. Those were phased out in a 1979 modification following the death of San Francisco assemblyman and LGBTQ+ rights activist Harvey Milk.

In an email to them., Quasar clarified that the Progress Pride Flag “was not meant as a replacement” for Baker’s iconic designs, but was intended “as a supplement to the many flags our community uses to represent us.”

“The inclusion of the additional stripes means placing emphasis on voices that need to be heard, especially now even more so than two years ago when I originally made the flag,” Quasar said. “Our world is so charged right now and the voices who have been screaming for years are getting louder and louder. We cannot ignore that and must make space for them to be heard. The flag was my way of saying we as a community need to step back and listen.”

But while Quasar said the goal wasn’t to create the only symbol of LGBTQ+ Pride used by an incredibly diverse community, the artist recognized that the Progress Pride Flag “really taken a life of its own, resonated with so many people, and created a lot of amazing discussion.”

“If those who appreciate the flag want to call to have it be used in place of the traditional flag, I am in full support of them,” Quasar said. “Regardless of my original intention, it is all on how people want to use it and spread its message. That is most important to me. We have a strong history within the queer community and ingrained in that are symbols that have changed and evolved with the ways our culture speaks for itself.”

Anyone who would like to purchase the Progress Pride Flag can visit Quasar’s website, although flags are currently on backorder.


More stories on the George Floyd protests and movement for racial justice: 

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