Pride this year is cancelled, and companies are rebranding their rainbow merch to sell it as NHS pride.
But those wanting to support the NHS could, at least, use a full rainbow which has 7 colours, and stop using our 6 coloured pride flag. We do not own the rainbow, the rainbow is a symbol of hope and I understand the idea behind using it for the NHS during this time. When we see this symbol now we may not know if it refers to LGBT+ Pride or NHS Pride – this is likely to result in not speaking as openly about our identities as we won’t know if we are safe with that person or not. A visible cue (such as a rainbow badge) is an unspoken sign of solidarity, and will be noticed by those that are looking for it. If I am ever asked “how can I show LGBT+ people I’m an ally?”, I always say “be visible”. If the LGBT+ Pride flag is now also used to represent pride in the NHS, how will LGBT+ young people know what the meaning of the badge is, and therefore whether they can open up about their identity? The badges symbolise to queer kids that the wearer is a safe, supportive person to speak openly about their gender and sexuality. Staff took an online learning course around LGBT+ awareness and the challenges LGBT+ young people face and at the start of this year nearly half of the staff were wearing one. Let’s use this as an example: last year Sheffield Children’s Hospital launched their rainbow badge scheme. Designed for one parade in 1978, it's now one of the most recognized symbols in the world.The LGBT+ Pride flag is a symbol of solidarity, inclusion and acceptance.
The LGBT pride version of the flag designed by Gilbert Baker has become the most famous of the rainbow flags. And in Peru and Bolivia, the rainbow "Flag of Cusco" is a symbol of the indigenous Inca people. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast based in Birobidzhan, a sort of satellite government of Russia located on the Chinese border in Birobidzhan, uses a rainbow flag as its own symbol. In Italy, it's used as a symbol of peace, often with the word "PACE" written in white across the flag's stripes. In 2001, one version added a black stripe for AIDs awareness.Īside from LGBT pride, rainbow flags have other historic and political meanings that persist today. One version unfurled in Philadelphia this year added black and brown, for racial inclusivity. The flag has been modified in different places at different times.
The White House illuminated in rainbow colors after 2015's Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. Judy Garland, the star of "The Wizard of Oz," has a large following as a gay symbol, and is famous for singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in the movie. The rainbow also has some pop culture significance for the LGBT community. The rainbow is so perfect because it really fits our diversity in terms of race, gender, ages, all of those things." We needed something beautiful, something from us.
It came from such a horrible place of murder and holocaust and Hitler. "It was necessary to have the Rainbow Flag because up until that we had the pink triangle from the Nazis - it was the symbol that they would use. The rainbow flag was a way of taking these various colors and turning them into a coherent symbol, reclaimed by the LGBT community. During the Holocaust, Nazis forced gay men to wear pink triangles as a symbol of sexual deviance. Oscar Wilde wore a green carnation, and yellow served the same purpose in Australia, and purple provided that function in some communities in the United States. I realized I would have to make some compromises in order for this to really function as a symbol."Ĭloseted gay people have also historically used bright colors to signal their homosexuality to each other, as Forrest Wickman wrote in Slate. "Even to do four-color printing for photographs like this was complicated. " One of the reasons I had to adapt the eight-color version to the six-color version of the flag - the one we use today - is because in 1978 eight colors was expensive," Baker told the Museum of Modern Art. The longest rainbow pride flag ever, in Key West in 2003.Īndy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/Getty Images