According to a new national survey by Whitman Insight Strategies, has found that a majority of LGBT Americans don’t want a brown and/or black stripe added to the rainbow pride flag.
The poll, taken by 880 LGBT adults from around the United States, found that 58% oppose the new stripes.
The survey found that LGBT people of color narrowly agree with updating the flag, 52% to 48%
Researchers found that 58 percent oppose the new stripes, while 42 percent support them.
In n June 2017 the city of Philadelphia flew the flag with a brown and black stripe at City Hall and promoted the message “More color, more pride” in response to racial problems within the city. The change of the iconic rainbow flag created by artist Gilbert Baker at the request of Harvey Milk in 1978, received a lot of pushback and caused debate within the community. A debate that continues to rage on a year later.
How do you feel about adding a black and brown stripe to the Rainbow Pride Flag?
Sound off below.
Leave it as is
The current rainbow flag is in fact a whitewash of the original flag. Gilbert Baker’s flag didn’t contain blue, but did contain pink and turquoise. Also the indigo and violet of the original flag have been collapsed into purple. So there’s nothing sacred about the current flag. But on another level, the popular understanding is that the colors of the flag are all in the color white. As a political statement, the new flag with the added brown and black is powerful, because it reminds us that we can’t get the color brown by just using white light. We need black, too. Some would argue that as the movement for LGBT rights was mainstreamed, it became more conservative, more seeking of approval from the dominant culture, which is still steeped with white privilege and moving to the right in the current political environment. Many of today’s LGBT crowd just want to have fun and don’t like attention called to the “special” pleas of our LGBT people of color. A similar resistance to the word “queer” exists. As the word ‘gay’ became mainstreamed and rejected by lesbians, it is really ‘queer’ that best describes the LGBT community as alternative to ‘straight.’ But many older gay men have been “stoned” by the word ‘queer’ in their youth. I think the resistance to the “More color, more pride” flag can best be understood as being founded in mainstream patriarchal, racist culture, but of course many bjectors would deny their white male privilege. Who knows where U.S. culture is headed at this frightening and horrible juncture in our history?
I am strongly opposed to changing our gay flag. Way too much politically correct garbage floating around. Keep it the same, which is consistent with gay flags all over Europe.
Jim – You are correct in pointing out that the Pride flag is a social construct and not an immutable reality. The current question is not ‘can the flag be changed’, but ‘should the flag be changed. To the first question, we know the flag has been altered to include the colors of the Rainbow, the other symbol of ‘beauty in unity’ that was, is, and always must be the goal of our movement. Unlike Great Britain’s Union Jack or the South African flag which acknowledge the union of nations or peoples. the Pride flag is a statement of aspirations and universal values. The colors symbolize” life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), harmony/peace (blue), and spirit (purple/violet).” Adding black or brown, (or yellow or red, or white) to acknowledge different genotypes is to confuse the meaning of the flag.