London flies a new Pride flag: a history of how the rainbow flag got its stripes
euronews.comPride Month, the Crown Estate commissioned 100 Pride flags to hang above Regent Street for the first time.But the flag on show is not the typical rainbow flag you probably know.This version is the intersex-inclusive Pride flag and was designed by Valentino Vecchiette in 2021.Vecchiette, who is the founder of Intersex Equality Rights UK added the purple circle on yellow background to incorporate the voices of intersex people.Intersex is a broad term for people born with sex characteristics that are not exclusively associated with a singular binary definition of male or female.
These sexual characteristics can be internal, such as sexual organs or chromosomes, or they can be external signifiers, including body hair and breast growth.
But Vecchiette’s addition to the Pride Flag is only the latest chapter in a fascinating journey to create a flag to represent all the diversity within the LGBTQI+ community.A post shared by Valentino (She/They) Vecchietti (@valentino_vecchietti)The first flag Although the rainbow base design of the Pride flag seems ubiquitous in 2022, it wasn’t until the 1970s that it was created.Until then, one of the only symbols to represent the queer community had been the pink triangle, created by the Nazis to identify gay men.Although it has been reclaimed and is used proudly by some members of the queer community, others wanted a new symbol, one free of the pink triangle’s dark origins.In 1977, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker was convinced by friends, filmmaker Artie Bressan and Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, to create an image of pride for the gay community.Initially, Baker was against the idea of flags, thinking they represented patriotism.
