When Gilbert Baker created the iconic Rainbow Flag 40 years ago, he expressed that the design should evolve over time to promote inclusivity and symbolize progress.
In June 2017, Philadelphia unveiled a new design with black and brown stripes added, and public response wasn’t favorable. Many found the design redundant, uninspired… and not aesthetically pleasing.
Now an artist named Daniel Quasar has started a $14,000 Kickstarter to promote a new design. It’s undeniably more creative than the poorly-received Philly take, incorporating the soft pinks and blues from the Transgender Pride Flag, along with the brown and black stripe, in an arrow formation to symbolize progress.
“When the Pride flag was recreated in the last year to include both black/brown stripes as well as the trans stripes included this year, I wanted to see if there could be more emphasis in the design of the flag to give it more meaning,” writes Quasar, who identifies as a “queer, non-binary guy.”
“The initial idea was important because I felt like I could bring something to the table when it came to the way the flag was shifting within the community. I am a designer and I wanted to make a change where I saw there was an opportunity. A positive change, in my mind at least,”
There are many reasons one could argue in favor of the changes made to the flag. Here’s a big one: the 1969 Stonewall riots.
If you were one of the six or seven people who happened to catch the God-awful Roland Emmerich movie Stonewall (it enjoys a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed a jaw-droppingly abysmal $292,000 worldwide against a $17 million budget) and took is as fact, you might believe the Stonewall riots were started by a smoking hot white boy with a perfect jawline and and eight-pack who threw the “first brick.” But that’s not true. Though there’s no concrete evidence on record, many accounts say the first brick was thrown by a queer woman of color.
Rev. Irene Monroe witnessed the riots firsthand. “The Stonewall Riot … started on the backs of working-class African American and Latino queers who patronized that bar,” she says. “Those black and brown LGBTQ people are not only absent from the photos of that night but have been bleached from its written history.”
So, what do you think? Is the new design a step forward, or is it unnecessary?
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot
h/t: https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag
Keep the original Pride Flag.
Keep the original Pride Flag. Adding more colors is going to confuse people. If it's not broke, don't fix it.
Hate it
Hate it
Stop it, just stop it!.
Stop it, just stop it!. Adding more colors so you can be specifically inclusive, seriously? What's wrong with the original flag? After all there aren't any purple, blue or green people. The colors in the original flag weren't meant to specifically reference any particular group of people, so adding more colors that do, what's that all about? Just stop it!
Arguing about a flag’s colors
Arguing about a flag's colors and design seems to miss the point. Progress is about what happens in the real world — like people's not being harassed or murdered for who they are or who they love; people having jobs that allow them to care for themselves and their families — not about superficial symbolism.
Where’s my color?
Where's my color?
Bull shit, all of the actual
Bull shit, all of the actual photographs taken of the Stonewall riots, show overwhelming white boys and the Stonewall was a white boy bar.
Extremely ugly & extremely
Extremely ugly & extremely unnecessary ! No just no. Where are the other 20 flags that represent our community why aren't they added (bears, leather, etc.) No way in hell. SMDH
Couldn’t agree with you more.
Couldn't agree with you more.
That just looks like it’s
That just looks like it's trying too hard and the design is way too busy. The six colors of the current flag is very attractive. Just leave it alone.
Feels more like that
Feels more like that "designer" wants to make a quick buck off off the LGBTQ-Community (to the tune of $14k…) by addressing a non-existing problem with the pride-flag…
Yet another Kickstarter scam imo…
Just…NO…
Just…NO…
1) The rainbow flag was never about race (or do you see a white stripe in there to represent caucasian people?), so there shouldn't be ANY race-specific coloring added to it…that's not what the flag stands for and it shoudn't be turned into something it wasn't meant to be…
2) Adding ANY sub-groups color-palette to the rainbow flag is also a no-go in my eyes. The rainbow flag doesn't stand for any one sub-group of the LGBT+ umbrella…it stands for all of them. It stands for inclusivity and peace. Adding one specific groups color-palette would destroy that…
Did a Russian bot write this
Did a Russian bot write this post-truth article?
Wow John Wisniewski, just wow
Wow John Wisniewski, just wow. What an ignorant,small minded and hate filled person you must be. You don't have to "understand". No one asked you to fucking understand. I'm not transgender and I certainly don't presume to understand what that must feel like but they are human beings that deserve to be who they are, to be happy and to feel supported by others who have had to fight for our own right to be who we are, to be happy and not to be persecuted or discriminated against, and to have had to fight against people that dont "understand" us or think we should exist.
The Pride flag was never
The Pride flag was never about race or skin color, everyone under one flag is welcome, and I don't know how the colors brown and black rrptrsrep progress. Leave the flag alina. I live in Philly, and yes – they fucked up the redesign. Leave it alone. Also – I am not a person to understand the transgender life, maybe I will some day. But, non-binary gender does not and should not exist. It's just made up. Grow up and get a grip of yourself.
If not for non-binary and
If not for non-binary and trans people Pride would not exist. We were at the forefront at Cooper's Donuts, Compton's Cafeteria and Stonewall. Places we went because the mainstream clubs did not want us there. And what did the the white gay cis-gender males do when they took over the early Pride movement? They threw us off the bus because we did not fit the image they wanted to project.
Just say no Nancy. Pride
Just say no Nancy. Pride flag was NEVER about race.