A new Pride flag takes center stage: the Progress Pride flag

With the global pandemic and the recent Black Lives Matters protests, a new Pride flag is coming into attention for its inclusivity: the Progress Pride flag.

This flag is not really new as this was created in 2018 by Daniel Quasar to update the original six-stripe Pride flag by Gilbert Baker to include people of color and transgender people in the design.

Growing acceptance for the Progress Pride flag

The Progress Pride flag has been gaining ground since it was first created two years ago, what with the international focus on Black Lives Matter protests happening in the US.

What’s more, discussions in the UK has been focusing on author JK Rowling’s challenges against the transgender community and the use of the rainbow to show solidarity for the National Health Services (NHS) workers.

Jamie Wareham wrote in Forbes that, “Prides, brands and activists around the world have simultaneously and without any co-ordination, been adopting ‘The Progress Flag’ as their symbol for the community instead.”

“From the London Mayor’s office, to Boston Pride and even cultural institutions like the UK’s Southbank Centre–the symbol being used represent LGBT people is changing,” Wareham noted.

He added, “And it’s all part of a drive to be more inclusive of the expansive breath of identity within the community.”

Meanwhile, Chris J. Godfrey, a journalist for The Guardian, tweeted: “With everything happening right now this year feels like a good moment to make this flag the mainstream, default symbol for the community.”

During the 50th anniversary of Pride month, activists had embraced Quasar’s banner as a tribute to activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were part of the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn.

Likewise, LGBTQ+ Stem (which advocates for queer and trans inclusion in science and technology) said the LGBTQ community “wouldn’t have Pride today” without the activism of transgender people of color.

Updating the classic design of the Pride flag

Updating the design made by Baker in 1978, Quasar had designed the flag similar to the flag adopted by the city of Philadelphia in 2017.

The Philly Pride flag– which had black and brown stripes to their Pride flag– was created in partnership with Amber Hikes, who was the executive director of the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs at the time.

The Progress Pride flag represents black and brown stripes for people of color, and baby blue, pink and white from the transgender flag in its design.

Quasar had also said the brown and black stripes represents those people living with AIDS and those who have died.

These stripes are placed in a new arrow shape– a chevron– pointing to the right to show forward movement. However, their position on the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made.

Quasar said in a statement on the flag’s crowdfunding campaign page to manufacture flags and stickers: “We still have movement forward to make. There still is work to be done. I wanted to highlight that.”

However, critics of Quasar’s flag said Baker’s design didn’t need to be updated. Baker’s Pride flag design has been recognized as a design classic and included in the Museum of Modern Art’s and London’s Design Museum collections.

So, what do you think of the Progress Pride flag?