Of course, no one owns the rainbow, but the flag is more than a symbol of hope – it’s a symbol of safety. It’s a community that has long faced oppression – being gay is still illegal in more than 70 countries.
He didn’t trademark it as he wanted everyone to be able to use it.Īfter the assassination of gay San Francisco city supervisor, Harvey Milk, the flag was firmly adopted by the LGBT+ cause, its followers became the “rainbow community”. The WA Post story headline was the very wordy: Boaters allegedly harassed another group over gay pride flags. Got to keep the headlines short and sweet, even if not totally accurate. Gay rights activist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in 1978 in San Francisco. Very true, but when I posted the topic putting 'Dont Harrass the Boaters flying a Pride Flag' wouldnt get as much attention as Gay Boaters. We must consider the significance of the flag and the role it plays for a marginalised community, which has fought hard for its identity and acceptance. Around one in five LGBTQ people will experience a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation or gender. The amount of racism I've seen in the LGBT community sometimes makes me feel that I'm in 1950s America. Symbolically, it's god damn fucking needed. Late last year, the BBC obtained figures from 45 police forces in the UK that showed the number of reported homophobic hate crime cases almost trebled – from 6,655 in 2014-15 to 18,465 in 2019-20. Aesthetically, it doesn't look so good (I'm starting to slowly like it though). But it is not like the extensive history attached to the use of the flag by the LGBT+ community wasn’t well known.ĭuring LGBT History Month, it’s time to take stock. It starts as a cute and innocuous gesture, and before you know it you can buy an iced-caramel latte in a cup with the same design. It takes a second to repost a picture of children in Italy drawing rainbows for their health workers. But Philadelphias Pride flag is slightly different: The citys organization More Color More Pride added two new colors black and brown to acknowledge LGBTQ people of color. On Monday, Bob Chapek, CEO of the Walt Disney Company-which is closely associated with Florida due to its namesake theme park in Orlando- wrote in a memo to employees that Disney would not issue a statement against the bill, citing releases including Black Panther, Encanto, Pose, Summer of Soul, and Love, Victor as proof of the company’s values.In a social media age, movements happen fast, often without a lot of thought. If DeSantis does sign the Don’t Say Gay bill, it will go into effect on July 1, 2022. The Florida Senate passed the bill on Tuesday, and now it’s headed to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis, who has said that he supports its message (though he hasn’t explicitly stated whether he will sign it). What happens to the bill next, from a legislative perspective? The Parental Rights in Education bill-also known as the Don’t Say Gay bill-prevents schools from including material about sexual orientation or gender identity in their curriculums, noting that lessons “may not occur in kindergarten through grade three or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” The bill would allow parents to sue schools or teachers that teach about LGBTQ+ role models like Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Below, find everything you need to know about the bill, as well as who’s opposed to it and when it could become law. See how Pride is taking on new meaning for. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, as with other national and international groups, are imagined political communities it is imagined because not all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people know each other or ever will, though they feel an abstract kinship through a shared identity (Anderson 1983). The same is unfortunately true in Florida, where a piece of legislation dubbed the Don’t Say Gay bill has worked its way through the state’s Senate. For the first time ever, the Pride flag is flying at our global HQ, showing support for the LGBTQI+ community. Between the ongoing attacks on trans youth in Texas and the criminalization of gender-affirming care for minors in Idaho, it’s a scary time to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community.