What is the 'Progress Flag'? New banner 'replacing' rainbow icon splits LGBTQ+ community
There has been a rift in the LGBTQ+ community over the 'Progress Flag' as some people from the community are calling it "ugly", "dumb" and a “monstrosity". The traditional 'Rainbow Pride' banner features red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet in six horizontal bars. The 'Progress Flag', on the other hand, adds other colors like black, brown, pink, light blue, and white, plastered into a triangle overlapping the original pride design.
According to an information page from Northwestern University’s office of equity, the black and brown colors reflect “marginalized LGBTQ+ communities of color, community members lost to HIV/AIDS, and those currently living with AIDS." The white, pink and light blue stripes reflect the transgender community. The traditional rainbow flag was first designed by artist and activist Gilbert Baker in 1978.
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What is the 'Progress Flag'?
The 'Progress Flag' was designed in 2018 by graphic designer Daniel Quasar. According to Grand Rapids Pride Center, "Quasar added a five-colored chevron to the classic Rainbow Flag to place a greater emphasis on 'inclusion and progression'. Quasar’s Progress Pride Flag added five arrow-shaped lines to the six-colored Rainbow Flag, which is widely recognized as the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) community." It added, "The flag includes black and brown stripes to represent marginalized LGBTQ+ communities of color, along with the colors pink, light blue, and white, which are used on the Transgender Pride Flag."
Quasar is a non-binary artist and graphic designer who graduated with a BFA in Communication Design from Pacific Northwest College of Art. After he designed the 'Progress Flag', it was first adopted by the British Medical Association in 2020, and Deliveroo adopted it for Pride Month in 2021. The flag is also flown above several official buildings in various cities like New York City, London, Boston, and Sydney.
However, some people from the LGBTQ+ community had strong views about it. “It’s an aesthetic and design monstrosity that no gay man should approve of. It’s a disgrace to our sexual orientation,” said Andrew Sullivan, a longtime gay cultural critic, who now runs a popular substack, as reported by New York Post. "The designers of this flag do not seem to understand that the rainbow symbol was always a METAPHOR. A rainbow already contains every color! We were not previously fighting for green gays and purple gays and yellow gays and forgot to include brown gays and black gays. So it’s dumb as well as ugly," he added.
Sullivan, 58, who is a longtime supporter of the Democratic party, asked, "Who voted for this flag? Did anyone ask gays and lesbians and trans people before it was imposed on all of us? Was there a poll? Nope – just far-left activists corralling all of us into their ideological bubble." "When I see it, I cringe first and wince second. I see it as a flag of the intersectional left — not of gay people in all our diversity of opinion," Sullivan further said.
A longtime Hollywood art director said that the new flag is “disgusting”. However, he was afraid that if he aired his concerns, he would be “blacklisted” in his industry. “I hate it,” he said. ‘It’s definitely distanced me from the traditional gay culture that we’re used to. It’s been hijacked by people looking to satisfy these minority groups," he added.
A 'Progress Flag' is displayed by Sotheby’s New York offices on 71st and York on the Upper East Side. The skating rink at Rockefeller Center, on the other hand, chose the traditional pride flags instead. The historic gay bar The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village displays both.
“Everyone should wave whatever flag they believe represents them during Pride,” said GOP City Councilman David Carr, the first openly gay Republican to sit in the chamber. "The traditional flag is the one I identified with over the years, and it’s the one I’ll continue to display proudly," he added.