This story has been updated with an image of the flag the Mayor’s Office has confirmed will be used. The flag reveal and raising will take place on Thursday on the north apron of City Hall as part of the city’s first annual LGBTQ Pride Month kick-off celebration from 3:30 p.m. Although there have been several variations of the flag in the past that highlighted specific identities within the LGBTQ spectrum, this will be the first time a major institution has ever modified the flag as a way to highlight racial diversity within it. The original six-color rainbow Pride flag was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 he died in March at age 65. Last month, City Council unanimously passed a bill, prompted by Gayborhood racism concerns, that will give PCHR the power to issue “cease-operations orders” to businesses found to engage in a pattern of discrimination Mayor Jim Kenney later confirmed that he would sign it into law.
In February, the Mayor’s Office named Amber Hikes, a black queer woman, as the executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs and finally announced the members of the new Commission on LGBT Affairs, whose leadership ranks are primarily people of color. In January, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) mandated that Gayborhood bars and nonprofits comply with sensitivity trainings after community complaints of racial discrimination emerged last year. The arrival of a more inclusive pride flag is another sign of visible progress over the past six months in the city’s LGBTQ community. “With all of the black and brown activism that’s worked to address racism in the Gayborhood over the past year, I think the new flag is a great step for the city to show the world that they’re working toward fully supporting all members of our community.”Ī spokesperson for the event would not confirm the new design, but in a statement described the flag reveal as “a special, can’t-be-missed unveiling and raising of a brand-new Pride flag which promises to be a step toward inclusivity, to spur dialogue within the community, and to impact the worldwide conversation.” “The black and brown stripes are an inclusionary way to highlight black and brown LGBTQIA members within our community,” said one source involved with the flag-raising event who asked not to be named. The new permanent design will be, from top to bottom: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Multiple sources closely connected with Thursday’s First Annual Pride Kick-Off at City Hall have confirmed to G Philly that the city’s Pride flag will add black and brown stripes below the traditional six-color rainbow layout.
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The final black stripe represents those who feel they are without gender, as black is the photological absence of color and/or light.” The nonbinary flag and the genderqueer flag are both options for nonbinary people to use to symbolize themselves and take different approaches to how to symbolize nonbinary genders.Image of new Pride flag via its designing company, Tierney. The purple could also be seen as representing the fluidity and uniqueness of nonbinary people. The purple stripe represents those who feel their gender is between or a mix of female and male, as purple is the mix of traditional boy and girl colors. White represents those who have many or all genders, as white is the photological presence of color and/or light. Yellow represents those whose gender exists outside of and without reference to the binary, as yellow is often used to distinguish something as its own. This flag was intended to go alongside Marilyn Roxie’s genderqueer flag rather than replace it. Kye Rowan designed the nonbinary flag in 2014. TriPride has not discovered the original creator. The raised fist was added to the six-striped flag and includes various shades of brown and a white stripe to represent the various colors of the “human rainbow.” The flag’s use has mostly been in the digital sphere, but it was flown at the 2019 San Francisco Pride. Historically, the raised fist has served as an emblem of solidarity and support as well as an expression of unity, strength, defiance, and resistance. Designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018, it features black and brown stripes to represent people of colour, and baby blue, pink and white to include the trans flag in its design. Johnson, the black drag queen thought to have thrown the first brick at the Stonewall Inn Riots). The flag represents queer people of color (QPOC) and how the black community and the queer community are often woven together, both currently and in the earliest days of the Queer Liberation Movement (see Marsha P. Though it may have been used before, 2020 saw the display of the QPOC Pride Flag rise in popularity in the broader queer community as a sign of solidarity with Black Lives Matter demonstrations seen across the country and world.