Tennessee Williams
What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.
We celebrate #Pridemonth in June. This month is the most colorful of the year as we celebrate LGBTQ+ pride.
Although the RAINBOW flag is widely used, it is not the only flag linked with the community. Did you know you may choose from over 10 different LGBTQ+ Pride Flags?
How it all started?
Everyone has their own story about why they wear a LGBTQ+ pride flags. It gives some people a sense of belonging, others an opportunity to come out, and still others a way to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. Back in 1977, everything began.
Some Pride Flagsm :
1. Gilbert Pride Flag
The Gilbert Pride Flag, the flag that started it all.
It was formed in 1977, by Gilbert Baker, an artist, activist, and openly gay war veteran. Harvey Milk, a prominent LGBTQ rights activist, charged Baker with designing a rainbow flag with eight distinct colours for the LGBTQ community.
Inspired by the iconic song “Over the Rainbow” from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Baker created a rainbow flag to represent LGBTQ people. Also, Each of the flag’s colours has its own significance.
- The colour hot pink represents sex.
- The colour red is the colour of life.
- Orange is colour associated with healing.
- The sun is associated colour yellow.
- Green has a connection to the natural world.
- Turquoise is linked to both magic and art.
- Indigo is associated with serenity.
- Violet is a colour that represents the LGBTQ community’s spirit.
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2. The Six-Colour Pride Flag
One of the most well-known and widely used LGBTQ+ Pride flags is the 6-Color Pride Flag. This flag features the colours red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet.
Due to the scarcity of hot pink cloth, they did not incorporate it into these flags. Moreover, After gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk died on November 27, 1978, demand for the flag skyrocketed.
In 1979, the flag underwent another modification. Gilbert Baker chose to divide the design in half, with an even number of stripes surrounding each lamppost, enabling the draping of hundreds of rainbow banners along the parade route.To achieve this design, he eliminated the turquoise stripe from the seven-stripe flag. Thus, The result was the six-stripe version of the flag, which became the industry standard.
3. Philadelphia Pride Flag
The Philadelphia Pride Flag was established in response to the need for greater inclusivity among the LGBTQ+ community. Also, A small PR business in Philadelphia designed the flag, which will be presented in 2017 as part of the city’s “More Color, More Pride” campaign.
The inclusion of black and brown stripes in the traditional LGBTQ+ pride flags symbolized people of color, addressing past marginalization within certain facets of the gay rights movement.
Lena Waithe, an American actress, wore the Philadelphia LGBTQ+ Pride Flags as a cape at the 2018 Met Gala. Additionally, She is a strong advocate for black people in the entertainment industry, and the flag gained in popularity as she made it more visible.
Leader’s Tip:
Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?
4. Transgender Flag
Monica Helms, a transgender woman, created the Transgender Flag for the first time in 1999. Light blue and pink are featured since they are the most common colours associated with baby boys and girls. The color white represents individuals who are intersex, transgender, or do not identify with any specific gender on the flag.
Transgender people have a different gender identification or expression than the sex assigned to them at birth. Above all to Amnesty International, the European Union has 1.5 million transgender people, representing of 0.3 per cent of the entire population. Furthermore, approximately 1.4 million trans adults live in the United States, accounting for about 0.5 per cent of the population.
Trans individuals of colour are the most affected by violence against the queer community. As a result, the Transgender Flag is quite essential!For the trans community to be visible without fear, representation and resources are essential.
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5. Progress Pride Flag
Due to the changing nature of the LGBTQ+ community and society at large, the Progress Pride flag unites many of these flags into one.The redesign of the pride flag places a stronger emphasis on “inclusion and advancement,” representing a positive and progressive development. Also, Our community consists of a broad group of people, and it is this diversity that sets us apart, makes us unique, and empowers us.
The modern pride flag now incorporates stripes to represent the experiences of people of color and to identify transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC), and/or undefined individuals within the LGBTQ+ community.
Daniel Quasar’s banner incorporates the colors of the trans flag along with black and brown stripes reminiscent of the 2017 Philadelphia Pride flag, aimed at better representing the identities of black and brown individuals within the gay and trans communities. People living with HIV/AIDS, those who have died as a result of the disease, and the lingering stigma associated with HIV/AIDS are all represented by those two stripes.
Leader’s Tip
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.
6. Non Binary Pride Flag
Kye Rowan created the Nonbinary Pride Flag in 2014 to represent individuals who do not identify as male or female in the traditional sense.The nonbinary flag’s colours are yellow, white, purple, and black. Each colour symbolises a distinct subset of nonbinary people.
Yellow denotes people who do not identify as male or female in the cisgender binary. A cisgender person has a gender identification that matches the sex assigned to them at birth. White symbolizes multi-gendered people, as it combines all colors into one.Purple, like the lavender colour in the genderqueer flag, represents persons who identify as a combination of male and female genders. Finally, black, symbolizing the absence of color, represents a gender people who do not identify with any gender.
Some non-binary/genderqueer people use gender-neutral pronouns. ‘They,’ ‘their,’ and ‘them’ are the most regularly used single forms.
7. Flag for the Asexual Community
In 2010, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network created the Asexual Community Flag. Asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction or interest in sexual activities towards others.It’s wise to ask each person what asexuality means to them because it might mean different things to different people. For some people, it could imply that they rely on other types of attraction instead of or in addition to sexual attraction.
Asexual is a broad term, and each of the flag’s colours denotes something different. Black represents asexuality on the flag. Grey is the colour of demisexuality, which occurs when a person only develops sexual interest for someone after forming a deep emotional bond with them. Also, White on the flag symbolizes allies within the LGBTQ+ community. While, Purple is the colour that represents the entire asexual community.
8. The Bisexual Pride Flag
In 1998, Michael Page created the Bisexual Pride Flag. Pink and blue combine to make purple in his flag design. The ease with which bisexual people can integrate into both the homosexual and heterosexual worlds.
The colours of the flag also reflect the interests of different genders. Pink is associated with attraction to people of the same gender, while blue is associated with interest in people of a different gender. Also, The purple color represents bisexuality, defined as the attraction to two or more genders.
“Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizen of this country.”
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9. Lesbian Pride Flag
The Lesbian Flag is a flag with which few people are familiar.This flag consists of various shades of pink with occasional crimson kisses to symbolize lesbians who wear lipstick.
Natalie McCray designed this flag in 2010.Although some lesbians object to the flag since it excludes butch lesbians, it is the most popular flag in the world.
The new flag’s colours reflect the following:
- The darkest orange represents gender nonconformity.
- In the middle, orange: Independence
- The lightest orange is Community.
- White: One-of-a-kind relationships with women
- The lightest pink represents serenity and tranquillity.
- The pink in the center of the flag symbolizes love and sex.
- Femininity in the deepest shade of pink
10. Gay Pride Flag
The Gay Men’s Pride Flag is a lesser-known pride flag. It comes in many shades of green, blue, and purple.
This current gay men’s pride flag is a blue-toned remake of a prior gay men’s pride banner. That version was problematic because it employed colours that were stereotypical of the gender binary.
This new flag represents a far broader range of gay men, including transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming men.
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Check this video out:
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs):
How are gender identity and sexual orientation determined?
No one is entirely certain about the determinants of a person’s gender identity and sexual orientation.Also,The issue is complex by genetics, biology, psychology, and societal variables, according to specialists. Most people form their sexual preferences and gender identities at a young age.Gay and transgender people are not the consequence of any one element, such as parenting or prior experiences, yet science has not yet identified a cause. If a person or a loved one becomes LGBT as they get older, it is never their “fault.”
How does someone know if they are transgender, gay, lesbian, or bisexual?
Some individuals assert that they “felt different” or experienced attraction to people of the same sex when they were very young. Some transgender individuals express feeling from a young age that their gender identity did not conform to social and familial norms. Other people discover their sexual orientation or gender identity as adults or teenagers. Often, it takes time for people to categorize their emotions, and emotions might change over time.
Can a gay person have a family?
Yes! Families may and do exist for LGBT persons. Devoted and loving relationships exist between same-sex partners. Many same-sex couples in the United States, despite not receiving the privileges and advantages of marriage, choose to celebrate their union with commitment ceremonies or civil unions. Even though state regulations on adoption and foster parenting vary, more and more LGBT couples are co-parenting. Of course, many LGBT persons also benefit from the love and support of the families they were raised in or the families they have built for themselves with their other friends and loved ones. People often say that all it takes to create a family is love.
Key Takeaways:
- LGBTQ+ flags such as the rainbow flag, transgender pride flag and bisexual pride flag symbolize different identities and promote visibility, acceptance and equality.
- Each of LGBTQ+ pride flags has its own meaning and represents a specific community within the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
- Embracing the LGBTQ+ flags and understanding what it means helps create an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued and respected, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.