gilbert baker designed his flag with the express purpose of it including every single queer person. baker was so dedicated to making sure his flag was inclusive that he added another stripe in 2017, lavender, to represent diversity. the concept that it’s for white gay men came around later and needs to be changed.
can we please go back to associating the original flag, and ideally the modern rainbow flag, with inherent inclusion of every single queer person? instead of deciding that the original wasn’t good enough? personalized flags are important for representing those who have typically been excluded from the queer community, but reclaiming the original flag as a symbol of inclusion is important too.
I understand the intention behind the progress flag, I really do. Certain identities have been more suppressed and marginalized and I understand wanting to highlight them. But if you add a brown stripe to recognize the amazing efforts of POC for our community, you have to add something for the incredible Asian folks who have contributed, the Latino folks, the Native and Indigenous folks, not all of whom identify as POC or Brown/Black. If you add the chevron to highlight our trans and intersex siblings, why stop there? Why not add one for our other beautiful subcategories? Nonbinary, asexual, aromantic, bi, pan, genderfluid, lesbian, gay man, demisexual, femme, butch, agender, the list is quite literally endless.
You CANNOT combine every flag without it being a complete mass of unidentifiable pixels. When you accept that you have two options, 1) rank our suffering and our value to the greater community and only include the top few (an absolutely horrible idea) OR 2) decide to not add flag after flag and instead represent ALL identities with a single symbol. I think the answer is clear. The rainbow flag was always intended to be an overarching symbol for all of us.
Absolutely none of this is to disparage the progress flag, any other variations of the flag, or anyone who likes these other flags. Its just what I see as an unwinnable goal. If you try to highlight everything, you didn't actually highlight anything