A flag meant to bring the gay community together has ended up ripping it apart.
Last week, the city of Philadelphia revealed a revamped version of the gay pride flag, a collaboration between the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs and Philadelphia design firm Tierney. The revised flag has a black and brown stripe added on top of the traditional rainbow flag, meant to represent people of color who are ”marginalized, ignored, and even intentionally excluded,” according to the More Color More Pride website.
The redesign was commissioned after the city’s gay neighborhood experienced several race-related incidents. Last year, a video of the owner of Philadelphia’s ICandy bar using racial slurs was uploaded to YouTube. Other bars, including Woody’s and Tavern on Camac, were accused of using vague dress code policies to discriminate against minorities. After the incidents the city forced bar owners to undergo anti-racism training.
“The new design is a symbolic representation of Philadelphia’s commitment to centering the experiences, contributions, activism and dedication of black and brown members of our community,” Amber Hikes, executive director of of the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs, told Newsweek.
But some LGBT activists think that the addition is unnecessary at best and divisive at worst.
Charley Beal, a friend of the original flag’s designer Gilbert Baker, told NBC: “The stripes were not chosen for skin color — they were chosen to reflect the spectrum of color in nature.”
Twitter user Terence Brady questioned why there was no white stripe if the flag is meant to be truly inclusive: “It includes 2 additional colors – black and tan. no white. yes it’s racist. The rainbow flag is to be all inclusive of everyone.”
The original flag had eight colors that represented sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, art, harmony and spirit. Eventually pink and turquoise were eliminated for practical reasons, leaving red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
Sex columnist Dan Savage cast doubt on the whole controversy, tweeting, “We’ve added stars to the country’s flag. Don’t see why we can’t add bars to the pride flag.”
A spokesperson for Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs told NBC that the controversy is unfounded, and that the flag isn’t meant to replace the original, but to be “additive.”