“No. This is segregation, not inclusion.” are just some of the comments you will see on social media since a new pride flag was introduced. It’s caused a major stir on Facebook and Twitter and the controversy has not stopped since. This is all from a new campaign that has been launched to add black and brown stripes to Gilbert Baker‘s original 1978 rainbow flag design as a way to celebrate non-white LGBTQ members.

Philadelphia raised a brand new Pride flag featuring brown and black stripes as a symbol of the City of Brotherly Love’s embrace of LGBTQ people of color. The 10-stripe flag is reportedly the first Pride flag flying over the U.S. city to recognize queer people of color. The flag was designed in conjunction with the city’s Office of LGBT affairs and is part of the larger #MoreColorsMorePride campaign. It’s also part of the city’s ongoing effort to address concerns about racism in Philly’s gayborhood.

“In 1978, artist Gilbert Baker designed the original rainbow flag. An iconic symbol of LGBTQ+ unity. So much has happened since then. A lot of good, but there’s more we can do. Especially when it comes to recognizing people of color in the LGBTQ+ community,” the #MoreColorMorePride campaign says. “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.”

What do the Gay Pride Colors Mean?
The LGBT pride flag is not about skin color it’s much more than that. This beautiful rainbow wasn’t popularized as an official symbol of the gay community until the 1970s. In 1978, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed what is believed to be the first modern lgbt pride flag by combining eight stripes, each a different color with its own symbolism: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for the human spirit. When he wanted to manufacture the flag for sale, he found that hot pink wasn’t as available as the other colors, and so the flag dropped to seven colors. Baker later dropped indigo to maintain an even number, and the flag arrived at its contemporary six colors. When San Francisco gay activists marched to protest the 1978 assassination of city supervisor Harvey Milk, they marched with Baker’s flags.

One Commenter Said:

Adding brown and black stripes to the rainbow is stupid. The flag stands for our ENTIRE community. Why the hell would we separate a few races from our subculture and single them out by superficially including them?!
Who ever came up with this idea does not understand the meaning behind our rainbow flag. What ethnicity did you think green stood for? Gay aliens? Jesus, take the wheel on this one. Please. I can’t.

So Philadelphia doesn’t realize the rainbow spectrum is A REAL OBJECT and how the color prism WORKS, and adds brown, which is a dark yellow, and then black, which is the absorption of all color/or lack of light. Since we’re talkin skin colors now – where’s the White Stripe?

A popular club promoter commented on Facebook:

Interesting how all the gay guys complaining about the updated Pride flag are white.

June of 2018 a designer in Oregon made a “more inclusive flag” to replace the rainbow flag.
Daniel Quasar is proposing a new, “progress”-focused design for the rainbow flag. The design puts white, pink, light blue, brown, and black stripes in an arrow on the left on top of the six-striped rainbow flag.

The main part of the flag is the rainbow flag “so as not to take away from its original meaning.” The light blue, pink, and white stripes on the left come from the transgender flag. The brown and black stripes represent people of color, “as well as those living with AIDS, those no longer living, and the stigma surrounding them,” Quasar writes. The new stripes are in the form of an arrow pointing right “to show forward movement.”

Some are not liking the new flags that are trying to replace what really maybe shouldn’t be messed with:
“Let’s see we went from all being gay to being lesbian and gay then a truckload of letters followed. Now we want to ass more stripes to our flag. We keep dividing ourselves into smaller and smaller groups instead of uniting as one. Let’s stop it and get it together for our own good, and survival the way things are going.” Says Jeff McCullough on Facebook.

What are your thoughts?