I mean, remember Stonewall? The Hollywood film had an attractive corn-fed white boy toss the first brick rather than Black trans woman Marsha P. In addition to outright racism and discrimination, there’s also the enduring problem of erasure in LGBTQ history. And you just have to look at Grindr to see how race and ethnicity work in sexual politics with men requesting “no chocolate, no rice, no spice.” I mean, there’s even an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to Racism in the LGBT Community. Historically, there is also a wide range of gay bars and clubs who were accused of discriminatory door policies. Even in New York, Chelsea gay bar ReBar has recently been accused of racism. I mean, it’s not just Philadelphia that has had a problem with racism in their community. People with intersectional identities can’t just decide to solely concern themselves with sex or gender.Īnd this desire for racial and ethnic blindness or post-race politics points to an ugly part of LGBTQ history. However, do you know who the only people that can decide whether a given topic is about race or not? White people. As one tweeter said, “That new pride flag with the brown and black stripes is so fucking stupid LGBT is sexuality and gender not race lmao.” One argument is that the flag is supposed to denote gender and sexuality rather than race. Now, most of the criticism seems to hinge on the original intent of the rainbow flag designer Gilbert Baker who made the flag in the 1970s. The criticism ranged from saying the new flag was “ugly” to even claiming that the new flag was racist itself because it didn’t include a white stripe. Well, instead of doing that, a bunch of folks, namely white gay men, decided to have a conniption about the new stripes. In an interview with NBC, Executive Director of Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs, Amber Hikes explained, “It’s a push for people to start listening to people of color in our community, start hearing what they’re saying, and really to believe them and to step up and say, ‘What can I do to help eradicate these issues in our community?’” Therefore, to make their commitment to queer people of color official, the city decided to create a new Pride flag.
Why the need for a new flag? Well, recently, Philadelphia has seen an onslaught of racism and anti-blackness in their “gayborhood” including a bar owner who was caught using the “N” word and several businesses that had discriminatory dress code practices. Seems quite mundane, no? Isn’t any gesture toward inclusion a good one, even if it’s symbolic? Well, apparently not.
The More Color More Pride campaign in Philadelphia created a new flag with black and brown stripes in honor of queer people of color, celebrating the importance of racial and ethnic justice in LGBTQ politics.
And this time, it’s the response to the added black and brown stripes on the new Pride flag in Philadelphia.įor those of you who have been fixating your outrage on Katy Perry’s cultural appropriation or Trump’s daily Russian dalliances, let me quickly fill you in. But, sometimes people’s bad reactions–and lack of shame voicing them publicly–really burns my toast. Usually, in true Filthy Dreams fashion, I laugh and brush it off–maybe post a tweet. Almost everyday, I have to sit down and catch up with the news that I’m supposed to be mad about. It’s hard to keep up with the daily outrages nowadays. The rainbow gets a new look (Courtesy More Color More Pride)