As Pride Month unfolds, celebrations are happening worldwide, including in India, where people from various backgrounds gather to honor and embrace the LGBTQ+ community’s rich history, achievements, and ongoing fight for equality. In the spirit of inclusivity, a newer version of the pride flag is being prominently displayed, symbolizing the evolving understanding and recognition of different sexual orientations and gender identities.
What is the Pride Flag?
In recent years, the rainbow-striped Pride flag has undergone updates to reflect the intersecting diversity of LGBTQIA2-S communities.
However, before the rainbow flag gained popularity, various symbols were used by these communities. A comprehensive report by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health reveals that symbols like the pink triangle, derived from the symbol imposed on gay prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, were widely utilized, especially during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Other symbols included green carnations, purple handprints, the Greek lambda symbol, blue feathers, and ace playing cards.
In the late 1970s, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office, asked his friend Gilbert Baker to create a symbol representing the gay community. Baker, in collaboration with Lynn Segerblom (known as Faerie Argyle Rainbow), designed the original rainbow-striped flag with eight colors.
Each color held symbolic meaning, such as hot pink representing sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic and art, indigo for serenity, and violet for spirit, according to the report. However, the flag was later modified to a six-color version due to manufacturing and dyeing challenges, resulting in the familiar rainbow flag we know today.
Although there are specific Pride flags representing various identities within the LGBTQIA2-S community, the rainbow-striped flag has historically been the most widely recognized symbol representing Pride for the community as a whole.
A More Inclusive Flag
In 2021, for Pride Month, the iconic rainbow flag underwent a revamp to prioritize inclusivity within the LGBT+ movement. This updated design aimed to incorporate and recognize intersex individuals and was spearheaded by Valentino Vecchietti.
However, the new Pride flag was an evolved version of other inclusive flags seen over the years.
In 2013, Morgan Carpenter from Intersex Human Rights Australia designed the intersex flag to bring visibility to intersex individuals. Then, in 2017, Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs, led by civil rights activist Amber Hikes, added black and brown stripes to the rainbow flag to represent and include people of color within the community.
Building upon these advancements, in 2018, Daniel Quasar redesigned the flag to include trans people, resulting in the creation of the Pride Progress flag. This version aimed to recognize and uplift the transgender community within the larger LGBTQ+ movement, according to a report by The Independent.
Continuing the journey of inclusion, in 2021, Valentino Vecchietti from Intersex Equality Rights UK played a crucial role in the development of the Pride Progress flag design, incorporating the intersex flag.
The 2021 Flag Explained
The Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag is named so because it specifically aims to include and represent intersex individuals within the broader LGBTQ+ community. The term “intersex” refers to individuals who are born with sex characteristics that do not align with typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Unfortunately, the experiences and identities of intersex people have often been overlooked or marginalized within queer narratives, according to a report by Indian Express.
According to the report, the new colors represent:
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: New Ideas
Green: Prosperity
Blue: Serenity
Violet: Spirit
Chevron Part
Black and brown: People of Color
White, blue, and pink: Trans people
Yellow with purple circle: Intersex people
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