In partnership with SEqual Seattle who helped fund it, the Seattle LGBTQ Commission has created a new Pride Flag for the City of Seattle which will make its public debut next Friday, June 1, 2018 at the 6th annual Pride Flag Raising ceremony on the front steps of Seattle City Hall.
The new flag follows the examples of other cities who have recently made changes to the traditional Gay Pride flag by adding additional colors to represent queer people of color and of different gender identifications and sexualities. This has stirred some controversy with defenders of the traditional design pointing out a rainbow is a prism that represents all colors and thus all people under the LGBTQ umbrella.
The Commission posted a photo of a tiny flag with the new colors on their Facebook wall…we’re trying to get clarification if that’s the actual new flag, or just a tiny facsimile. The old Pride Flag was obviously quite large, in order to be seen properly.
Here’s more info on the Friday, June 1st event…
This is a free/open to the public event.
Seattle to add 5 new colors to their official city Pride Flag for 2018. Photo: Seattle LGBTQ Commission
Join the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and Mayor Jenny Durkan in celebrating the 6th Annual Flag Raising event to kick off Pride
Month. We will raise the pride flag in honor of the LGBTQ people residing within our beloved city. Please come join in on the celebration!More details about the programming schedule and speaker list to come!
Reasonable accomodation and language interpretation upon request. For more information, please contact Erika.Pablo@seattle.gov or call (206) 684-4500.
The pride flag at Seattle City Hall is going to look a little different this June! Five new colors have been added to the existing six rainbow stripes. The black and brown stripes represent people of color – and the pink, light blue and white stripes represent trans, gender non-binary, intersex and folks across the gender spectrum. These particular communities within the LGBTQ+ umbrella are often made invisible and disproportionately impacted by discrimination, but are integral to our community. We want to center those communities both symbolically and in daily engagement through our commission.
Thanks again to our friends at SEqual Seattle for funding this flag!
Friday, June 1st
4 – 5:30 p.m.
Seattle City Hall Steps
600 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104
About the Author: Michael Strangeways
Related Posts
Seattle LGBTQ Commission Looking For New Board Members…Both Young and Old
Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission is looking for new blood…both young AND
Seattle City Hall FINALLY Announces Pride Flag Raising Event…The Day Before It Happens
They’re a bit tardy to the party…other cities in the
Seattle To Raise Pride Flag At City Hall
They sent out the press release the day before… (annoyed
Cleaning Up Durkan/Best’s Messy CHOP Failure…They Need To Go And Changes Need To Be Made With SPD
So, after over a month of drama, the BLM/George Floyd/CHAZ-CHOP
Trump, Corporate Media, SPD Spread Lies About Seattle’s Protests & CHAZ
Dear Outside World Who Have Mostly Ignored Us for the
Seattle Kicks Off Pride Month With Police Brutality
Normally the first day of June would involve a lovely
How do I order a new flag??? Is there a website? Thanks!
I found a clearer image: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5403bcb7e4b04db10d1cff73/t/596e71f359cc68a3f95eec4f/1500410366175/Pantone+Color+Chart?format=750w
I’m keeping the old flag, with its original colors unifying us with emotions (love, sensuality, etc) we all share. On the contrary, this eyesore divides us. Where is the representation for Native Americans or Asian Americans? Or the myriad of other sexual identities. Throw it into the recycle bin before the parade.
While I agree that queer POC are underrepresented I don’t think that adding colors to the flag is the way to fix that. The flag is meant to represent all colors and all of us in the community. If we want to create a new flag that is more representative of all of us, that’s fine, but I think we should come up with an original design rather than just adding colors to the current flag. Gil Baker knew what he was doing when he designed the Rainbow Flag and frankly from a design and marketing standpoint his design is pretty hard to top in terms of symbology and color choice. It’s instantly recognizable, it’s bold, it’s loud, and it’s memorable. I don’t see this new flag with the additional colors being as well received no matter how good the intent behind it. If we want to rebrand then we should rebrand completely. 50 years of branding and making the LGBTQ community mainstream shouldn’t be undone because we are too lazy to put real effort into rebranding.
I’m sure it will ruffle feathers, but as I said, approaching this from a design and marketing perspective and this new design feels incredibly lazy.
I think if we want to change the flag to better represent all of us then we need to design a new one instead of just adding to the old one.