The flag also honors those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have passed away
A new Pride flag design has gone viral for the creative way it includes queer people of color, the transgender community, and the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.
The “progress Pride flag” is the work of queer, nonbinary, demisexual artist Daniel Quasar. The retooled design takes the traditional rainbow flag, created by Gilbert Baker, and adds arrow-shaped stripes that incorporates the transgender Pride flag, as well as adds brown and black stripes to represent queer people of color.
The black stripe also honors “those living with AIDS, those no longer living, and the stigma surrounding them,” xe explains in a Facebook post.
“The 6 stripe LGBT flag should be separated from the newer stripes because of their difference in meaning, as well as to shift focus and emphasis to what is important in our current community climate,” Quasar continues. “The main section of the flag (background) includes the traditional 6 stripe LGBT flag as seen in its original form so as not to take away from its original meaning.”
The stripes in the rainbow flag, as designated by Baker, represent life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), harmony/peace (blue), and spirit (purple/violet).
Last year, Philadelphia Pride unveiled a flag that added black and brown stripes, also to represent queer people of color. It drew both praise and criticism.
Philadelphia just added black and brown stripes to its rainbow #Pride flags to acknowledge and fight racism within its LGBTQ community: pic.twitter.com/MMrrooHpX0
— Splinter (@splinter_news) June 24, 2017
The addition of the black and brown stripes by the activists in Philadelphia inspired the Victorian Pride Centre in Melbourne, Australia to follow suit and add them to its rainbow logo, in support of indigenous Australians and Australians of color.
“The trans flag stripes and marginalized community stripes were shifted to the hoist of the flag and given a new arrow shape,” xe says. “The arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made.”
Quasar, who is based in Oregon, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of the flags, as well as stickers bearing the image.
