In present day 2023 America, June brings in pride month. Government buildings, local businesses, churches and schools fly pride flags alongside the American flag, or even in place of the American flag in some cases. How should we interpret this?
According to New World Encyclopedia, flags are “used symbolically by nations, states or organizations, however flags are multi-purpose and can be used for messaging, advertising, signaling religious ceremony or simply for decorative purposes.” The American flag obviously is a symbol of our nation, and each state has its own flag. Organizations such as sport teams, or religious groups use flags as symbols that bond community members to a shared goal or belief. Created by Gilbert Baker, the original pride flag was a symbol of rebellion, or revolution. Gilbert believed the “gay nation should have a flag too, to proclaim its own idea of power.” Since then at least fifty different pride flags have been created. Today, pride flags symbolize allegiance to a nation or organization, signal religious ceremony, and carry messaging.
The pride flag represents an organization or nation state brought about through revolution in the same way red flags represent socialist movements. The Bolsheviks considered a red flag a good representation of their movement during the Russian Revolution. Once the Marxist-Leninist forces rose to power, they adopted the red flag as the basis for the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. When Gilbert Baker first designed the pride flag, he spoke of the LGBTQ community proclaiming its power. His inspiration for its design was the American flag because it represented a rebellion and revolution. America broke away from England, and the pride flag is a representation of the LGBTQ community looking to break away, revolt, and lead a movement. According to Queer in the World, “Imagine the rainbow flag is the US flag, and many of these other flags are like individual states underneath.”
When the White House flies the pride flag in the center with the American flag to each side, possibly in violation of the flag code, are we relegating national identity inferior to sexual identity?
The pride flag is a religious symbol. The rainbow has roots in Christianity. In the book of Genesis, it was a covenant between God and Noah. There are many similarities between the “pride” movement and religion such as holy holidays, like pride month and Lent, with unique traditions and rituals. By co-opting the rainbow, the LGBTQ community is creating their own religious symbol and religious flag.
The pride flag represents allegiance to sexuality. It is a sex flag that places a private act on exhibition. Under the guise of affirmation, inclusion, and diversity, it encourages people, including children, to support, defend, and wear symbols of sex acts and sexual preferences.
This is the entrance to a classroom in the Grand Haven High School. Whether this flag represents a political revolution, a religious symbol or who someone likes to have sex with, is this appropriate in a classroom setting?
Flags are used for symbolic reasons, but also for messaging. What is the message being sent here by this teacher?
All types of sexuality are acceptable under the pride flag as it removes barriers and even includes children as sexual subjects. There are flags for “kinks” such as the rubber pride flag and a “pup pride” flag popularized by Sam Brinton from the Biden administration.
While flags are generally used to pull people together for a shared purpose or shared identity, pride flags have segregated a small sliver of the population into even smaller subgroups. Overall, the LGBTQ population makes up approximately 7.2% of the American population. Under various pride flags, those 7.2% are then further divided into groups based on sexual interests. This extreme division has taken the place of the primary identifying categories of allegiance that have served to unite people for generations. Rather than identifying as an American, a Michigander, a Christian, or even a fan of a sports team, human allegiances have been debased down to sexual proclivity.
This is a resolution recently passed by the all-male, Muslim City Council from Hamtramck, MI. Hamtramck residents are made up of a large percentage of immigrants: 20% Yemeni, 20% Bangladeshi, 20% African American, 13% Polish. The majority are Muslim.
If a country’s flag rallies its people around the ideals of a nation, a state’s flag does the same for the ideals and constitution of that state. If a religious flag rallies its community around shared beliefs, or a sports team’s flag rallies its supporters around the shared allegiance to a team, then what does the pride flag and its offshoots rally people around?
Are we elevating sexual interests to the level of national alliances? Are we to salute a sexual interest as a group? Are we to honor sexual interests alongside our national identity? Do we still have a national identity or have our identities as people devolved into only who we like to have sex with?