OPINION: A Pride flag for all of us

While Pride Month 2024 may be drawing to a close, the debate over the flag meant to represent the LGBTQ+ community and our movement is far from over.

What began as a simple seven-banded rainbow — the original “Pride Flag” created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 — has in the decades since undergone several metamorphoses. Artist Daniel Quasar’s “Pride Progress Flag,” which added colors for transgender and non-Caucasian people, was introduced in 2018, ultimately usurping its ubiquitous predecessor as the social justice craze swept the country.

West Hollywood controversially replaced its beloved Rainbow Crosswalks in 2021 with the Pride Progress version. The latest makeover is the “Inclusionary Pride Progress Flag” by Valentino Vechietti, which adds a purple circle superimposed over a golden triangle (for intersex people) to an already messy mix of shapes and colors.

Many of us have grown weary of the bloated pride flag design — the arbitrary way the colors have been claimed and the “us versus them” mentality it engenders. For all of human history, the rainbow has served as a symbol of hope and peace that binds us all together as humans, transcending race, language, class and identity.  Those who misappropriate it as a battle flag or a weapon of war are defeating its mission and destroying us from within. 

It’s time to get back to the basics by simplifying the rainbow design — but that doesn’t mean anyone has to be excluded.

On the contrary, the flag I’m proposing can actually represent far more people than the present one does.

I call it the “All Colors” Pride flag.

It’s a simple gradient of the visible spectrum of light, where red flows seamlessly into orange, yellow, green and into blue and purple. Unlike any of the previous designs, the colors here are not divided. No group dominates. There’s a a shade and a hue for everyone. And it represents progress on a number of levels — forty years ago, it would have been challenging if not impossible to manufacture this design on a flag. 

The Pride flag should, above all, remind us where we’ve been, where we’re headed and that we’re all in this together. Whatever it looks like in the future, let’s hope it embodies the unity of our community, rather than exacerbating our differences.