You Won’t Believe This Controversy About The Pride Flag

There’s a storm brewing inside the LGBTQ community since Pride Month, which occurred in June. Some people believe there is an aspect of the rainbow flag being left off, one that many say is important and needs to be quickly incorporated. Despite plenty of people believing the flag is fully representative of the entire LGBTQ community, people of color are asking for a brown stripe to be added, reports Twitchy. A feeling that this group of people have been left off the rainbow is rising.

A recent poll asking who was in favor and who was not showed gay men and those in the older group of the LGBTQ community are not in favor of adding the new color. Some are calling racism on this exclusion and opposition.

Poll finds gay men and older LGBT people are most opposed to a brown stripe in the pride flag to represent people of color https://t.co/KWszUXKDmx

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) July 1, 2018

Twitter is exploding over the poll. There seems to be a divide among those who see fit to add another stripe, and others who can’t understand such reasoning. One Twitter user calls the argument idiotic. She points out that listing every single ground who are welcomed and approved into a separate category may be counterproductive to the point of welcoming all. Another retweeted the poll, adding a comment.

“They should make a flag that contains every possible thing to ever possibly exist. It’s the only way.”

Despite these types of remarks, advocates press on with the issue. BuzzFeed cites that activists are strongly seeking racial inclusion for the flag.

This argument for adding a black and brown stripe to the pride flag started showing up publicly around June, 2017. At that time, the city of Philadelphia flew a flag which had a black and brown stripe on it at City Hall, promoting a message of “More color, more pride,” and can still be read about on the City of Philadelphia government website.

Figures on the poll, and a recent research project, are interesting. The research was conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies and BuzzFeed News as part of an even larger survey. It was found that a generational gap in the acceptance of such an addition is very present. People between the ages of 18 and 29 lean toward inclusion, with 53 percent in support of and 47 percent opposed. Less than a fifth of baby boomers agree with adding the stripes.

The pride flag was created by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, and originally only had two additional stripes. Pink and turquoise represented sex and magic, but were later dropped. More information on the history of the pride flag can be found on the Washington Post.