Equality : Philadelphia Unveils New Pride Flag with Black and Brown Colors
Photo Credits: Screengrab from morecolormorepride.com
Starting this LGBT Pride Month, the city of Philadelphia’s rainbow flag will be soaring high in eight colors.
The recent color addition is in accordance with Philadelphia’s campaign called More Color, More Pride. They explained in their official website that the move to add two more stripes (black and brown) was made to “recognize people of color in the LGBTQ+ community.” They said, “To fuel this important conversation, we’ve expanded the colors of the flag to include black and brown. It may seem like a small step. But together we can make big strides toward a truly inclusive community.” Watch their video campaign below.
In an interview with Philadelphia Gay News (PGN), Philadelphia’s Director of LGBT Affairs Amber Hikes said that, “The new design is a symbolic representation of Philadelphia’s commitment to centering the experiences, contributions, activism and dedication of black and brown members of our community.” Hikes added, “To me, this flag says: ‘We see you. We honor you. We celebrate you. You’re not just a part of us. You are us.'”
Philadelphia received numerous “community complaints of racial discrimination” in the past, prompting the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) in January to mandate that “Gayborhood bars and nonprofits comply with sensitivity trainings,” Philadelphia Magazine reports. That being said, even surveys reveal that racism is still a problem in the gay community in general.
On that note, what do you think about Philadelphia’s new rainbow flag, guys? Do you agree with their decision to add black and brown? Does adding colors to the pride flag that stands for racial diversity promote and encourage inclusion? Why or why not?
As we all know the rainbow flag widely used today has six colors: red which stands for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony, and purple/violet for spirit. The LGBT pride flag maker Gilbert Baker himself assigned the meanings to each color. During the iconic rainbow flag’s first appearance at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978 however, Baker’s original flag had eight colors. It included hot pink which represented sexuality and turquoise for art and magic.
Thoughts? Share it with us in the comments section below.
The Pride Flag was inclusive of ALL people, and didn’t discriminate against any one race.
Now the flag of unity, has been turned into a racial issue. Unreal.
Sho nuff.
Yeah that “inclusiveness” wasnt prominent enough to keep black people from being barred from prides. Why do you think Black Gay Prides exist??
I agree with the addition of Black & Brown, but they still have left out
THE MOST DISCRIMINATED GAY GROUP -Elderly Gays !!!!
Where is the Gray Stripe ?
Laugh all you want , but wait till you’re over 50 – it’s Hell.
I no longer support the LGBTBQIwhatthefuckever community anymore. Their stupidity with HIV and their intuitional discrimination of any one over 45 is pretty pathetic. Get to 60, it REALLY goes down the crapper. Screw ’em…..we did our part to make what they have now a reality, and they’re just pissing it away. Wait’ll Pence gets in there should Frumpy be impeached, now a real possibility….they’ll learn too little, too late.
I was thinking about how they should do something like this the other day. About time.
Well , that’s cool .
But which of the existing stripes exclusively represents any particular group of people ?
I mean , I’ve never seen any green , blue , purple or orange people before .
Everybody wants to be special why don’t they just take the flag and put individual names on it? This is getting out of control. How are you supposed to unite as one country one people when everybody has to single themselves out on every symbol and every flag?
Unnecessary
where is the White stripe? where is a symbolic representation of commitment centering the experiences, contributions, activism and dedication of the white members of our community? seems now a days the white community is the one being discriminated against.
I agree with you.
Omg I soooooooo hate this idea. We need to stop with the color of ppls skin. Come together as a LGBTQ (and I don’t think we need to be adding any more letters to that list either) community. If our LGBTQ….you’re in the club. That’s it. Stop pigeon holing ppl. He’s a black gay and he’s a brown trans…stop already. Just be! Just be who you are. It’s implied that multi races/religions/ppl of all walks of life are represented through the standard rainbow flag. We don’t need to keep adding to “The symbol” to make it more powerful. If you change it it will throw off the “non-community” and now we have to start all over explaining. Will there be a white strips to represent white people. Maybe a black and whit stripe to represent ppl that are mulatto? Where does it end. This is so wrong.
I could not agree with you more—perfectly stated!!!
Absolutely brilliant, Dylan ! I echo Kevin’s reply.
There’s a reason why the black and Latino LGBT community is so far removed from the mainstream LGBT community. Creating illusions of so called “inclusion” isn’t going to do anyone any favors. How about instead of brushing it under the rug, we actually bring it to light and acknowledge that the LGBT community isn’t as accepting and “kumbaya” as the outside world likes to think we are ?
How about acknowledging the mainstream gay media and their lack of interests in POC ? Or how about talking about the down right fetishization of Blacks and Asians as if they are pieces of meat ? How about all the popular gay clubs and bars that openly discriminate against POC ?
Oh but adding a few colors to the flag makes everything I mentioned, “okay” . Please.
What you’re talking about happens to everyone…..one of the less pleasant aspects of life….we are all bruised, objectified, fetishized (is that a word–I don’t think so, :), beaten, bruised, discriminated against in one way or another. It’s not right. But it’s part of life….and you are right–adding a black and a brown stripe will not solve the problem; however, it is extremely disrespectful to a handful of drag queens (Yes—drag queens!) most of whom are no longer with us who started the whole gay rights movement at Stonewall. Kind of ironic when everyone disparages them as “nelly” and queenie, isn’t it–that is discrimination too, and it has nothing to do with what color these drag queens were–be proud you’re gay, regardless of your color, religion, or gender!!! And thank you to the wonderful, beautiful drag queens who stood up and said we’re not going to take this anymore….we’re all in this together…
Spare me with the “everyone” statement.
Everyone is not a “Person of color” .
This.
I understand the purpose and thought behind this but do not agree that adding colors to the established rainbow flag is going to produce the result they are trying to achieve. Personally I do not think in the way of excluding any race as part of our LGBTQ community. By adding the colors, I do not think it will encourage others that do so to overcome their exclusionary actions or thinking. It may even make some people feel that portion of the community is asking for or receiving special treatment. At this time some believe there is still exclusionary treatment of the “T” community although hopefully that is changing wherever that may be happening. Are we to add a special color also for that part of our community or any other part that believes they are being excluded in some way? The traditional rainbow flag will soon become an HGTV paint sample pallet if needing to continue adding colors for our various diverse groups within the community.
Political correctness run amuck…..does anyone see a white stripe in there anywhere? Most emotionally evolved human beings already know that we are all included–we all bleed red, and ALL LIVES MATTER. You say inclusion? Well, as the the song goes, “You say tomato, I say tomahto” (spelling for emphasis). I think this is clearly a case of ultra liberals pandering to the public, vis. a vis. (in other words), we’ll say anything just like us and think we’re outstanding people because we don’t want to leave anyone out. I think it’s time for people to knock the chip off their shoulder and move on. We really don’t need to change everything to make sure someone doesn’t feel included. The think the word “inclusion” in the gay community covers so much more than the color of one’s skin. There are so many other disparities that have absolutely nothing to do with the color of one’s skin that are far more relevant, and have never been addressed, and probably never will–it’s just not “cache’. Where do I start? Having the perfect body, or not, age, the objectification of the young and beautiful and taking advantage of their lack of life experience and need of mentoring by the older generation, socio-economic, demographic, the community you live in, how well connected one is to people they can benefit from….I could go on, but I think most intelligent people know what I mean. And yes, as you may have guessed, I am white, and I’m not going to apologize for it. If I were one of my black or brown brothers or sisters, (whom I LOVE, :)), I would be equally appalled at such blatant condescension. Sounds to me like establishment throwing a bone–how insulting….Maybe we should put some black and brown stars and stripes in our American flag, so no one feels like they’re not American. That last statement should exemplify how foolish this is. It’s getting to the point that using the word black (even to describe a crayon, is politically correct–now, let me see, should we make Crayola stop selling them, or call them something like “extreme indigo”, or African Pride? It’s really long past time to end all this foolishness, and just be HUMAN.
KM
what happens if someone still flies a 6 color flag in Philadelphia? is that person labeled a bigot for not being inclusive?
Ridiculous!! I am Hispanic and gay and see no reason why black and brown is added to the flag. Why do we have to single out races/colors? I find this sad as we are all equal. I do not even know what the need for a gay flag is, where is the straight flag!!
I say no because black people are not the only race in the world who has been discriminated. Asians, Jews, Muslims(Arabians), and even latino and indians has been through discrimination and even killed in some cases. So no I don’t believe the added colors would be beneficial especially if it just involves black men in general without the other races of color.
Classic “race patronization”. Absurd. Where’s my “white” stripe?
Oh, get over yourselves Philly. The Rainbow flag does not represent any nationality, race or ethnic origin. That’s how it can stand for ALL. What next, add a pink stripe, a yellow, red, white, etc, etc. The aRainbow represents us all now. No need to change it.
absolutely right!!!
Why not come up with original pride flag representing their city….adding a rainbow somewhere in the flag? Seems disrespected to change the original
This is Gay Pride week in my city….of all the times to bring up such a divisive issue in the community, when we should ALL be coming together, as a force to demand the same rights to which every person is endued, inherited from the founders of this nation of freedom: “We hold these truths to be SELF EVIDENT, that All (it said men, but they didn’t get it quite right, I think) PEOPLE are created EQUAL. Come together people!!!
Those of you who live in Philadelphia know that bad sorts create problems for others, who then complain about it. Much discrimination exists for safety’s sake, because Philly is very separatist, because the ghetto behavior here is so out of line, so self-destructive, and caving in like this is a shame. A rainbow is the symbol of inclusiveness, no one is of its colors, but now somebody has forced their “color” onto it. Way to go. What an example. And who is discriminating in the first place? Crappy bars! Who cares? Grow up. Open your own places. See what that’s like. Oh, they do, and there are shootings.
And then there’s the dyke march, because they can’t possibly be included or represented by anything gay, it’s not because they’re women, it’s because they’re repulsive.
Reverse racism at its finest. Way to go, LGBTBQIwhatthefuckevers… Nothing but losers anymore.
I wasn’t on board until I read the comments here. The blatant white supremacy on display is exactly why we need stuff like this. Calm down guys, we still have the original.
Many valid points are brought up here. But I like the idea of Philly doing there own flag and including the rainbow in it’s design. It sounds as though it is not so much a gay issue of acceptance just general of people not accepting other races. That is just the feeling I got of all the str8 people there to. I always thought that a bigger city’s people would be more accepting of each other. The Italians don’t like the blacks don’t like the Jews don’t like the Asians. Feels more like the racism of the deep south of early 20th century. Btw I’m white but I love everybody. Until you give me a reason not to. That’s not a color thing. That’s a human thing. As a veteran my time in the service I had to work and live with all races. Never had issues until someone makes it one. For the most part no I don’t like changing rainbow flag
Plain stupid. Are they next going to add very for the over 40? A different yellow for Asians? What color would represent wimmen or Inuit?
That flag never stood for an inclusive community. it is a symbol for a marginalize people who in turn do it to there own, a flag will not change the ignorant small minded behavior it has to be from the people themselves
I’ll add my “voice” to those who are unimpressed with this unnecessary version of the flag. The original, universally recognized rainbow flag was/is SYMBOLIC, not literal. Its symbolism was meant to include all sexualities and all races and ethnicities, including persons of color. It should be noted that the colors of the rainbow result from the refraction of light, pointing to the concept of enlightenment. Apparently, this symbolism is too abstract for Philadelphians to grasp.
Our flag needs to be left alone regardless! It is disrespect. I am hurt at this action.
Juan here, Latino, and I do NOT approve of this. The gay pride ️ flag has nothing to do with race. It has to do with LGBT people no matter what color. But as usual, blacks always make everything about them. Black pride and now a black gay pride flag. Just sad and pathetic. Ay Dios mío. -smh-
This is such bullshit!! Does everything have to be about race and making sure no one gets their feelings hurt!! Where the hell is the white stripe?? You don’t hear us screaming about that! And yes !! It is disrespectful to altar what was and is a symbol for all gays everywhere no matter color!!
The gay community (is) a ‘micro’ of mainstream America, this is just a drop in the bucket of a tidal-wave of racism, money talks, not some flag, for cryin’ out loud! I mean, look at the American flag (white-blue, especially) I always imagined, blue for the ever coveted blue-eyes, white for the ever coveted skin color, right? A country for white folk. Take some real action towards inclusion, social-economics, within these gay establishments, EMPLOY more people of color, try that!
What a load of bunk !
What does your wild imagination get you all frustrated about when you see dozens of African nation flags without brown or black in them ? ?
They didn’t have to have these colors, to represent their skin color in their flags, that is, prior to the evasion of you know who, “white-folk?” They also called themselves “African” not black, that’s what the white folk called them. So, you tell me, what does the colors of the Amer., and British and French colors stand for then? Any body for that matter, what do these colors stand for red, white and blue? I’d really like to know, I’m not alone, I’m sure…
The rainbow flag represents millions of people of every color that are part of the GBLT Community. The same community that raised that flag high to fight for the very freedom we all have. (Against discrimination!) And many have died fighting under the rainbow flag. Adding black, brown stripes is like suggesting a certain Group was left out. Which is not the case here. The new design is not and will never be part of our history. The designer really needs to watch documentaries and read about Gay history. What a disgraceful and disrespectful thing to do! Sad.
No. Changing the colors just makes the flag look ugly and it won’t change anyone’s behavior.
No, changing the colors does not do anything. Our flag was not a race thing to begin with. Now Philly is just being down right disrespectful and selfish. Leave our flag alone. I have no problem witj black people as I am mixed myself, but y’all are horribly disrespecting our flag and it’s real meaning for gays. Y’all are making this about black people only not equality. You should have added white in the mix if you wanted it to be about race, but nevertheless leave our flag alone!