April 2, 2024 - 1:00pm
The LGBT pride flag appears to have taken on a new form in an image shared by London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s official X account over Easter weekend.
“On #TransDayOfVisibility, we celebrate London’s trans community as they strive to live authentically and safely”, Khan tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
The classic rainbow flag provides the base for the new design, but now two large triangles encroach from either side. On the left is a “progress pride” triangle with stripes representing ethnic-minority and transgender communities; on the right are coloured stripes to represent bisexuals, along with another black and brown stripe, either for emphasis or symmetry.
Some commentators have suggested that because gay men have become a marginal force in LGBT activism, the movement’s aesthetics were bound to suffer as a consequence. Others have called for leaning in and adding a third triangle to the mix. There was widespread criticism on grounds of both aesthetic and inclusion, with one account observing that the addition of bisexual stripes suggested that bisexuals weren’t represented in the original rainbow flag.
Transgender issues and racial awareness have become central to LGBT activism, with the addition of black and brown stripes to represent ethnic-minority communities on numerous interactions of the pride flag. Yet the first black stripe was initially added to the flag over concerns about racism in the gay and trans neighbourhoods.
Critics also point to a natural tension between gay and transgender causes, with the former emphasising biological sex and the latter minimising its importance, as can be seen in public disputes between the lesbian and transgender communities.
The first pride flag was made in San Francisco in the 1970s, and was commissioned by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold public office in California. This original rainbow-striped flag was made for a Gay Freedom Day Parade, and some version of it has been in use ever since. Many separate flags have been designed in intervening decades to represent different sexual orientations and gender identities, but the last ten years have seen a spate of new umbrella flags to represent the entire movement, with increasingly elaborate extensions laid over the original flag to represent transgender people and racial minorities, including for the more recognisable progress pride design.
As the creation of pride flags has become decentralised and informal, so no single flag can be viewed as representing the entire LGBT umbrella. Nonetheless, those which gain popularity and government recognition do offer some insight into the movement’s struggles, tensions, and goals.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeThis article hurts my bum.
Hopefully they’ll keep adding to it until it becomes so overcrowded, contradictory, and incomprehensible that it spontaneously combusts.
Quite fittingly, it’ll look just as shitty and garbled as any (post)modern art
Pollock?
You’re right, it is a load of Pollocks!
I think it should be ‘a shoal of pollock’.
It is the flag of soft totalitarianism.
This sums up so much of the Woke world view that we are subjected to. Too complicated, trying too hard to show it cares and it tries to solve problems that by and large either don’t exist or have a very minimal impact on 99% of the population. Ironically, in spite of their attempts at inclusivity and forcing people together, our society and many of these groups are more fragmented than ever.
Most ethnic minorities are socially conservative and would likely be mortified to be lumped in with LGBT groups while women and gays are increasingly wary of politics around Trans issues. As predicted around 5-10 years ago, the left is eating itself.
Bisexuals will be expelled as bigots. B shall be replaced with M for multigender.
Absolutely, reminds me of ‘Queers for Palestine’
Very in keeping with Easter Mr. Khan. To be honest I couldn’t care less. Its all a waste of effort, time and money.
Where’s the umbrella for sex workers ? And aren’t the disabled meant to be on there as well ?
As German satirist Kurt Tucholsky said; man can live for a time without food or water but no man can live without a flag.
Nothing sums up the ‘Current Thing’ more aptly than a series of disjointed, ugly pastels encroaching on a rainbow.
Christianity will survive long after this silly movement is a humorous footnote in history. He is risen.
Truly, He is Risen!
Only thanks to immigration from Africa, at least in the UK anyway. It’s essentially dead amongst the white population under 65’s
Mr. Khan, happy Easter to you, too.
#TransDayOfVisibility,
At the last count, there were 154 days each year devoted to LGBTQ+2S peoples.
Just curious and no harm intended. How is it that both England and Scotland have PM’s that are not Christians in the biggest nations in the British Empire, an Anglican Church Empire? So interesting. Have the demographics changed to this extent? Asking as an American. Not saying Christians can’t or shouldn’t vote for a non-Christian – just can’t see it happening here any time soon.
State Churches are frequently Religious in Name Only. If a Church is affiliated with the State than its loyalties are split between God and the State. In most cases, the interests of the State will become primary.
Most countries in the West today are being run by politicians who hate the people they are expected to serve. It’s becoming clearer each day.
Religion is largely dead in the UK, it’s just not something people care about. The country is still about 85% white so it’s a strange quirk that the leaders are currently ethnic minorities, however money talks much more than race these days.
Parliament is more diverse than the population at large ethnically but it’s dominated by those from upper and upper middle class backgrounds, and as immigrants from outside the EU under the old system generally had to be more highly skilled to get in their kids have had the advantages of growing up in a richer household and this more likely to go to uni and then a career in politics
The English one was not elected [leader] by the population, so you can’t really draw any conclusions from that
Nor was the Scottish one. (The two processes were different from each other but in neither case was the whole electorate involved.)
Has anyone here read Orwell’s notes ‘On Nationalism’?
Quite relevant in my opinion, and my interpretation is that the same psychology which fuels Nationalism can easily be channelled into other ideologies and identities (even transnational ones like International Socialism or the EU)
Flagwaving over things like this seems like a sort of spilled ‘nationalism’ in this sense
Anyway, maybe there are alternative interpretations but I recommend the essay, which can be found online.
It’s all an attempt to remove God from the world in preparation for Satan’s 7-year rule. Satan wants to make Sodom a holy place.
7 years of sodomy? That would make your eyes water!
Bisexual women are due to the fact that the vagina is a boy’s playpen, but girls use the c******s for fun. Lesbians give more orgasms, but girls are attracted to men by biological necessity. Girls just need to tell men that if you want to play in my hole, you must lick the clit or get a vibrator if you find it distasteful to eat your own semen.
I get the feeling you’ve never been anywhere near a ladies “hole” in your life
Im sure a flag can be endlessly divided and sub divided in to any number of triangles. Its infinitely devisable. I think Personally i think idiotic smarmy politicians deserve a stripe. What colour should it be..white’s not taken
Does every new generation have to make the flag more hideous and irrelevant? How can they not see how antithetical it is to the meaning of the original flag to start adding stripes representing specific races or identities? How dumb do you have to be to look at it and think there’s no brown stripe to represent black folks? Seriously?
Why is LGBQT being pushed on to us by people from cultures that deal out harsh punishments to those espousing LGBQT viewpoints? It’s almost like they’re fattening us up to be eaten.
I’m gay and it’s ugly. The original was fine and didn’t need to be altered in the slightest. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t (privately) dislike any of the new flags.