the basis of sex, orientation, and
colour is the stuff of joy, hope, and
freedom that John-Imagine-Lennon
and the rainbow flag embody for me.
The Pride flag was originally
created in 1978, when Harvey Milk,
the first-ever gay person to be
elected to office as San Francisco city
supervisor, invited artist Gilbert
Baker to design a ‘collective’ emblem
of the LGBTQIA+ movement. The
first flags featured eight colours, with
each stripe carrying a specific
meaning: pink for sex, red for life,
orange for healing, yellow for sun,
green for nature, turquoise for magic,
blue for peace, and purple for spirit.
The flag itself has changed since
1978, going from eight to six colours.
Pink fabric was withdrawn because of
the difficulty in manufacturing at the
time, and turquoise and blue were
combined into one colour, royal blue.
Since its introduction, the rainbow
flag has become an all-inclusive
symbol for peace, love and diversity.
This is not an art or history class in
the genesis of the Pride flag, but a
reflection on why the recent decision
by the Manchester Pride to create a
new flag for its 2019 event—one that
includes black and brown stripes to
represent black, Asian, and other
ethnic minority groups—makes as
much or little sense as the counter-
intuitive five skin-tone emojis on
your smartphone.
Don’t get me wrong here. In the
light of a Stonewall report published
in 2018 that found that 51 percent
BAME (Black, Asian and minority
ethnic) LGBTQIA+ experienced
racism within the community, the
Manchester Pride’s intent might
sound well placed—to promote
inclusivity. But, it is puerile to believe
that a neatly hemmed-in brown
stripe would magically dissolve—The Anonymous
Authorheteronormative biases that we
routinely face—not male, not white,
not straight, not married. Instead of
working on the racism within the
LGBTQIA+ community, would
adding gratuitous bands of two
colours to the flag help? Not to
mention, the visual tokenism is
alienating—how long until they add a
white stripe?; and cloaked in counter-
narratives—once you start including
this group or that group, you have
lost the whole point of Pride as a
celebration of otherness.
Agree that the colour of skin,
although a huge problem, is
something that each community
struggles with, but so is religion. Do
we start adding sacred symbols in the
Pride flag next?” QCara Delevingne at
this year’s Met Gala