June 23, 2022 - 1:25pm
It is apparently Pride Month, which has in recent years been stretched from one day in June to 30. This is presumably to allow time to recite the name of every single identity it represents. The flag supposedly representing the group formerly known as ‘lesbian and gay’ has been gradually updated to ‘better represent’ everyone on the planet. The flag, dozens of which can currently be seen hanging in central London, is the ugliest yet. The latest addition, as displayed during the Queen’s Jubilee, is a circle inside the yellow, which means intersex. It looks like it was designed by a group of drunken art students who broke into a Dulux factory and dropped some acid.
and now, the queens’ jubilee pic.twitter.com/L4vBJMtkBI
— charlie (@charliedanjones) June 22, 2022
Who does it exclude, you may ask? Well, there is a man called Reginald who lives in Potters Bar and washes his Ford Cortina on a Sunday morning. If ever he wears rubber gloves to do so, he could perhaps be included within the K (kinkster).
The flag has become an unparalleled monstrosity and has gone way beyond parody. My friend Simon Fanshawe says that the latest tongue-twisting acronym of LGBTQQIAAAPPO2S, all supposedly represented in the flag, is more like an unbreakable WIFI password.
But let me attempt to explain what at least some of its colours represents. The first thing to recognise is that there are flags within flags. The bisexual flag is made up of pink, purple and blue. Pink represents same-sex attraction, blue the attraction to various genders, and purple is attraction regardless of sex or gender. In other words: completely meaningless.
Then there are the pansexuals who merited their own flag in 2010. They were very keen on distinguishing between themselves and bisexual people. The pansexual flag is, unless I got it wrong, pink, yellow and blue. The yellow, in case you were wondering, is representative of those who identify as agender.
The trans flag is made up of baby pink and blue, a very edgy way to represent feminine and masculine, with white in the middle for the non-binary community.
And we must not forget the asexuals, whose flag is black, grey, white and purple. There is a separate genderfluid one in pink, blue, purple, black and white (black represents a lack of gender, just in case you were wondering). There is also an ‘ally’ pride flag which, represents heterosexual/cis gender individuals who actively support the LGBTYWCAESPPQWWIKJBXR+ community. This is made up of black and white stripes with an ‘A’ shape in the middle in the colours of the rainbow flag. Get with the programme! Did you know that the yellow represents new ideas? No, read a book, sit down, learn something.
Have I mentioned the polysexual, polyamorous, genderfluid, and genderqueer colours? This list is not exhaustive. But I am exhausted.
Soon, schools will be requiring students to learn the acronym by reciting it to a tune, just like I learned the alphabet and times table. Exams could be set with questions about the colour for Q (NO! Not queer, ‘questioning’!) Which colour represents the third P(Panromantic)?
I knew this was coming when, back in the 1990s, lesbian and gay became one word. It is has become as ridiculous as it is meaningless. I vote to wave the flag goodbye.
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SubscribeIts not an original observation but one that nonetheless bears repeating: its very difficult to take seriously the claim that an (illogically thrown together) group can be universally oppressed while at the same time enjoying unconditional support and celebration by display of their flag nearly everywhere you care to look.
These flags are not inclusive of the sighted but color-blind.
Comment of the day!
Your precious red white and blue flag covers that. Now lil bit quit hating and start spreading love.
I never saw the necessity of the original pride flag. I went on one pride March back in the 90s in Calgary, Canada where I lived at the time because their was a human rights driven need for it. We were spat at and verbally abused by members of the public for our trouble. I always found the term ‘pride’ weird – I wasn’t marching for permission to be ‘proud’ of my sexuality, just for the same rights heterosexuals enjoyed. Why be proud or ashamed of something that just is? Anyway, whatever, we’ve achieved equality in most developed societies. Progress! I like that. I see little need for a flag, a day, week or month to ‘celebrate pride’ in the ever metastasising TQWERTY+ ‘movement’.
Yet the current ‘progressive’ movement seems counterintuitively dead set on denying the progress that our societies have made over the last few decades with respect to not only the rights of gay men and lesbians but racial and religious minorities too. This is largely to do with the colonisation of our movement, whose aims are pretty much achieved, by bored, jaded, ‘liberal’, middle class heterosexuals of TQWERTY+ in search of something that might distinguish them from the sweaty proles who they imagine vote en bloc for Brexit, Trump and all manner of perceived fascist nastiness.
Two examples: a good friend and colleague of mine, when I first met her, breezily informed me with a giggle that she was really ‘a gay man trapped in a straight woman’s body’. How trivialising, I thought but said nothing because I didn’t want to dignify her comment with a response. I wonder if she’d have said something analogous to a black colleague. I’m guessing not. I feel now I should have said something at the time. Of course, she’s fully signed up to gender ideology now and brushes off any objections I raise. These people may be our friends in other respects but they’re not our ‘allies’.
The university where I work devotes considerable time and resources to the ‘celebration’ of Pride Month. I’ve never once been consulted on the need for this and I assume I’m not alone in that amongst gay and lesbian staff. It’s not as if the university doesn’t know we’re there – we can if we choose list out sexual orientation on our staff record with HR. Mind you, there’s barely a mention of lesbian and gay people in the Pride Month materials, it being devoted largely to TQWERTY+, so that may go some way to accounting for the lack of consultation. Who knows? Let’s cut to the chase, it’s all about reputation management in the current climate.
TQWERTY+ is a luxury-victim identity which is anything but progressive. It tells gay and lesbian people of my generation who fought so hard for equality that, actually, we achieved nothing of substance and, not only that, have joined the ranks of ‘oppressors’ of their imagineered, cosplaying ‘identities’. How dare they? It tells me they think very little of us and it’s no wonder so many gay and lesbian people are abandoning the dilettantes of the luxury left and finding common cause with our erstwhile adversaries on the centre-right who, now, have little substantial issue with us and at least stand for something definable.
Fantastic piece, should be an article in its own right.
Thank you, that’s kind.
All of this ‘new queer’ stuff ‘fair rips ma knittin’ as folk used to say in Glasgow. The ‘reclamation’ of ‘queer’ by some gay people is one thing as is the same thing with the ‘N’ word amongst some black people but we should never assume everyone in either group is OK with it.
To see ‘queer’ appropriated as a self-descriptor by a bunch of blue or purple fringed straights, though, is obscene. ‘Queer’ was one of the many epithets hurled at me while a gang of homophobic men tried to kick me to death back in the 90s. Can you imagine if Rachel Dolezalism became a thing and legions of woke lilly white Brads and Beckies began calling themselves ‘new Ns’? Have these people no shame and historical/self awareness?
Just when we thought the battle for equality on race, sexuality, womens rights etc was won, suddenly, in every field, everything became worse than it had ever been, almost overnight! Never underestimate the power of those who see their careers based on campaigning coming to an end, reinventing the fight to maintain their power, position and income. Stonewall is the ultimate example of this.
Got it in one. Stonewall have not merely reinvented themselves as gender hucksters, they are cynical betrayers of the very people they once succeeded in representing. Thank god for LGB Alliance.
Excellent article (and fun to read). Why in God’s name do the world’s elite want the world to swallow this crap? I know that they would prefer that families be destroyed (they’ve already wired that in to the welfare mix), and that children hate the West and have no meaningful sense of self.
Surely the rest of us can get rid of this, though it will take time and relentlessness.
I don’t personally think its a conspiracy (though there’s a good chance I’m wrong), but a logical endpoint to heavily incentivisied victimhood, cowardice by onlookers, and blanket self obsession brought about from the intentional errosion and undermining of notions of shared purpose and meaning.
Divide and conquer. While we argue between ourselves, our elites can happily get on with whatever James Bond villain evil plans they are concocting.
Erase the hate Richard.
There is only one judge, and it ain’t you. If this offends you. Then go to church and pray for forgiveness
This is a pretty judgmental statement.
A rainbow is where light is broken down into its entire visible spectrum. Every single colour and every colour in between. So didn’t the rainbow symbolize ‘everyone’? And if it did, then doesn’t adding more colours and shapes to it mean that some colours have disproportionate representation? So much for equality.
A rainbow is an example of division and separation… the division and separation of united /merged colours into its component parts.
Unite all the colours of the rainbow and you get white (I know, very politically incorrect).
So much for the flag representing unity.
Exactly. The old flag was perfect as it was to represent “every color of the rainbow.”
There’s only one solution! We must add more colors to represent people who hate the garish monstrosity!
Dude just be respectful please.
Best explanation of the flag and it nonsense that I’ve seen, thanks Julie.
Good article.
The A for ‘Ally’ is funny – “I’m not gay, but I know a bloke who is”.
Surely, person …. 😉
A flag that apparently celebrates inclusivity – except that, as a straight man (I’d add cisgender if I didn’t hate the term so much), I’m excluded. Where’s my flag?
I vote we adopt the pirate flag of Jack Rackham. Then we set sail for adventure and booty.
I guess you’d need to be careful about that last word!
Where do I enlist?
Why we need this kind of flag at all? Flags originated in medieval (or earlier) armies to identify soldiers in battle formations and to inspire their loyalty to feudal lords. Soon, they came to represent nation states (or ethnic groups in search of statehood). Then came non-governmental organizations and other groups seeking public acknowledgment. Now, psychological identities. Change notwithstanding, flags are still about tribes. I see nothing to be gained by promoting tribalism (let alone the other problems that have been noted on this thread). The most important thing for me, as a gay man, is what I have in common with other humans, not what makes me different from them.
Yes, is it human folly to be over zealously identity minded and/or hyper-patriotic; as sovereign or republican states should we not seek peace and harmony between our gender and national differences?
I was gobsmacked the other day seeing a Ukrainian flag flying on a church steeple; unless it was a Ukrainian refugee congregation it just struck me as “not on”.
The rainbow flag, it could be argued, is a cultural appropriation of a biblical symbol: the promise that the earth not be flooded again.
I think we’re nearer the second ‘flood’: the return of Jesus Christ to wrap up this world, its true injustices, not false ideologies.
Peace and justice.
Shalom to all.
Thank heavens we don’t have a heterosexual flag and a month to go with it. Flag makers are missing a trick there.
Presumably only a very small flag with symbolic handcuffs on it would represent those who’s sexual tastes are currently illegal. Do TERFs have a flag?
Of course, it’s proudly in the colours of Griffindor!
Excellent article, as a gay man, I pride (excuse the pun) myself celebrating, order, consistency and if I dare say it, a degree of sophistication to enhance one’s quality of life. This latest flag does not represent any of these qualities and is frankly an immature embarrassment that I do not identify with. This does nothing for those who are genuine victims.
Yes, absolutely spot on.
Crikey. Will there be a test on this later?
Quite possibly…
LGBTQQIAAAPPO2S
Been saying for a while that it’s nothing more than a greedy regular expression.
Unix nerds only
One has appeared on the pathway of my local park. I mean a painted one on the asphalt.
Fascinating. What, as a pedestrian, do you think it is instructing you to do?
What colour for incels?
no one gives a damn: it is a tedious woke non-issue, that due to the intense , ironically neo- puritan stance of those involved, has one benefit: itvall provides an endless stream of jokes and comedy!
Exactly
Decadence and signs of a crumbling empire, right? Does anyone know where to find more on comparing these ridiculous times with the end of the Roman Empire?
Since “schools will be requiring students to learn the acronym by reciting it to a tune” may I suggest “Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious”!
Indeed..’there is nothing new under the sun’.
Well said.
The USA has no clean food laws, defecating your pants laws, no clothing laws, no housing laws, all family has been criminalized and any needed transportation has been criminalized by these freak LGBTQ queers. The water poisoning is bizarre…
I can’t help but shudder when I see the LGBQT flag. For me it’s come to herald the rise of the Rainbow Police State.
I would consider myself an ally, one who used to be questioning, but is now firmly cisgender and demi-sexual. (I’m female) I personally love the string of letters that includes everyone. I know it keeps getting add-ons, and can be difficult to memorize, but I believe that inclusiveness is more important than any headache incurred from straining your brain to remember all the letters that represent everyone. I didn’t realize that each color of the gay pride flag aligns with each group included. But I have to agree, it is pretty awful in it’s new incarnation. When I first saw it, without being aware it was the pride flag, I immediately thought that the 1980s were trying to sneak back with rainbow wallets, hats, and of course rainbow suspenders courtesy of 80s mimes everywhere.
It always had irritated me when everyone had to be either gay, lesbian, or straight, I always felt there should be more categories of sexual orientation, without understanding the importance of why. (I was a teenager in the 1980s, so you might understand my niggling irritation with the lack of terms.) We had a friend of the family, who I called an uncle, as I called female friends of my grandma aunt. It was whispered he was a ‘transvestite’, and it sounded so dirty and depraved to my young mind. He came to dinner one holiday dressed in loose women’s clothing (He was a large person) and a rather bad blonde wig. He was a catholic, very devout, so you can imagine the conflict in his heart, and a rending of his spirit. He hung himself a couple of years after that holiday dinner, and I have had it in for the word ‘transvestite’ ever since. In high school, our choir teacher was a closeted gay man and it was an open secret. He was much like my uncle, only he didn’t dress in women’s clothes, at least not that anyone knew of. I think the only reason he kept his teaching job in our typical 1980s bedroom, clique-ish community was because he was so phenomenal at it. The jazz and acapella choir that he hand picked from students with superior music and singing skills won countless awards, and traveled all over to competitions. Well, a couple of years after I graduated, we heard that he had had an affair with a male underage student who then turned around and tried to then blackmail him, for what I don’t know. The teacher also committed suicide, and everyone knew the reason why. Most people blamed the kid and called him an awful person. But those are some of the reasons why I’m so glad that we, as a society, are moving toward a more gender-fluid and accepting society, although the alt-right scares me to death. First it’s Roe vs Wade. What will the alt-right outlaw next? Gay marriage? Gender fluid and gay people adopting kids? I hope with all my heart that it won’t come to that. But if R vs W can be overturned with not a thought to the impact it will have on women’s health and safety, I’m afraid it may.