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The History of Pride

The First PRIDE was a riot!

On June 28, 1969 a gay bar on Christopher Street called the Stonewall Inn was raided by New York City Police.  This was not an uncommon event, as gay bars were routinely raided during this time in history, however this time the outcome would be drastically different as patrons of the Stonewall would fight back! 

 

Armed with a warrant, police charged the Inn and began roughing up patrons and find bootlegged alcohol.  They arrested 13 people, including employees and people violating the state's gender-appropriate clothing statue.  This statue meant men could only wear men's clothing and woman, only woman's.  Woman officers would take suspected cross-dressing patrons into the bathroom to check their sex.  Greenwich Village would see a spread of violence over the following days, until order was restored and a clear understanding was made.  The LGBT community would no longer tolerate harassment and intimidation!  

 

 

                                                

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Martha P. Johnson

One of two names that will resound the halls of the LGBTQ+ communities history is Marsha P. Johnson.  Also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr, Johnson was an American gay liberation activist and a self-identified drag queen who has been labeled to have thrown a brick at police, inducing the riots that changed history.  Johnson disagreed to the accusations and stated that she was not present when the riots began.   She kept that as truth until her dealth July 6, 1992 when her lifeless body was found floating in the Hudson River.  Her death was labeled as a suicide despite what everyone else knew was the truth!

Martha P. Johnson

Silvia Rivera

Where there was Johnson, there was Rivera!  Sylvia Rivera was a gay liberation and transgender rights activist and is also remembered for her writings in NY.  She was identified as a drag queen for most of her life and later was honored with the title of transgender person.  Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolunaries, a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans woman, with Marsha P. Johnson.  She lived until February 19, 2002.

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Silvia Rivera

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GAY MAN'S

FLAG

This 5-coloured (and sometimes 7-coloured) gay men pride flag was designed in 2019 by Tumblr user @gayflagblog, but it wasn’t without controversy. 

Accusations that the creator of the flag is transphobic, and that the design was stolen from the sunset lesbian flag, were rampant. However, those claims have since been debunked, and the flag became increasingly accepted within the community.

  • Turquoise to green colors represent community, healing, and joy 

  • White represents gender nonconforming, non-binary, and transgender folks 

  • Blue to purple colours represent pure love, fortitude, and diversity 

The flag was designed by Michael Page in 1998 to increase the visibility of bisexuals among society as a whole and within the LGBT community. He aimed to give the bisexual community a symbol that is comparable to the rainbow flag for the greater LGBT community. The first bisexual pride flag was unveiled at the BiCafe's first anniversary party[2] on December 5, 1998.[3]

  • The pink color represents sexual attraction to the same sex only (gay and lesbian).

  •  The blue represents sexual attraction to the opposite sex only 

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  • The key to understanding the symbolism of the Bi Pride Flag is to know that the purple pixels of color blend unnoticeably into both the pink and blue, just as in the 'real world,' where bi people blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities.

BISEXUAL

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LESBIAN

FLAG

The 2018 redesign of the lesbian pride flag or "Orange-Pink" Lesbian Flag—which, according to Del Rio, is likely the most modern take on the flag—has seven stripes in a range of orange and pink hues. Moreover, each stripe has its own unique meaning.

  • Red: gender non-conformity

  • Dark orange: independence

  • White: unique relationships to womanhood

  • Light orange: community

  • The blue stripes reflect masulinity

  • The middle is white, for those who are transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender.

  • The pink stripes represent femineity

We can thank Monica Helms, a trans woman who is both a U.S. Navy veteran and trans activist, for the flag that celebrates the trans community. Helms first designed the flag in 1999 and introduced it at a Phoenix Pride parade in 2000. The flag is a symbol of trans pride and diversity and has since become a universal badge of joy and acceptance. It’s displayed at Pride events, in homes, at businesses, on t-shirts—the list goes on and on.

TRANSGENDER

FLAG

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  • The yellow stripe represents people whose gender exists outside of the binary

  • The white stripe, people with many or all genders

  • The purple, people with genders considered a mix of male and female,

  • The black for people who identify as not having a gender.

Kye Rowan created the nonbinary pride flag, which has yellow, white, purple, and black horizontal stripes, in 2014. It is intended to represent nonbinary people who did not feel that the genderqueer flag represents them and be used alongside Roxie’s design

NON BINARY

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  • The Black represents asexuality.

  • The grey represents demisexuality

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  • The purple represents community.

  • The white represents sexuality.

The demisexual pride flag has a black triangle coming out of its left side. It has a thick white line on the top, followed by a thin purple one in the middle, then a thick gray one at the bottom.

The Demisexual flag is a symbol for those who are only sexually attracted to those they have a strong emotional connection to. 

DEMISEXUAL 

FLAG

The flag has been in wide use since the early 2010s when it was posted on an anonymous Tumblr account by its creator Jasper.  The flag functions as a symbol of the pansexual community.   The pansexual pride flag is used to indicate that pansexuals have sexual attractions and relationships with people of different genders and sexualities.  The theory of pansexuality aims to challenge existing prejudices, which can cause judgment, ostracism, and serious disorders within society.

  • The Pink signifies attraction to females

  • The yellow represents attraction to non-binary people such as those who are agender, bigender and genderfluid.

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PANSEXUAL

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  • The Blue symbolizes attraction to males.

  • The Pink represents attraction to females

  • Yellow symbolizes attraction to nonbinary

  • Blue represents attraction to males

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  • Black represents asexuality

The earliest known trace of the demipansexual flag was by DeviantArt user Pride-Flags on May 14th, 2016 and features a combination of the demisexual and pansexual flag.

DEMI PANSEXUAL FLAG

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ALLY

FLAG

Sadly, it isn’t known who made or designed the straight ally flag. However, what is known about it is that it was first used in the 2000s. The straight ally flag was created by combining the LGBTQ pride flag and the straight flag.

The straight ally flag doesn’t have the original LGBTQ pride flag colors made by Baker. This flag only uses the more modern six-colored flag without pink and turquoise. The straight ally flag represents unity and support towards the LGBTQ community.

  • The letter ‘A’ means ally.

  • The black and white stripes represent the straight flag.

  • The rainbow colors in the letter ‘A’ are for the LGBT community.

  • Yellow : Symbolizes all genders that aren't connected to female and male.

  • Light red : This means the transition between the female and male genders.

  • Light violet/pink : Denotes female and male.

  • White : This means the union of all genders.

PANGENDER

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Pangender (polygender or omnigender) is someone who feels comfortable with different gender labels and whose gender identity is not limited to one gender and may encompass all genders at once. A pangender person may shift between identities over time or feel as though they have one all-encompassing identity that is unchanging.

  • Black represents asexuality 

ASEXUAL 

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Asexual folks generally don’t feel sexual attraction or desire. Asexuality is a spectrum, with a total lack of sexual attraction on one end, and having sexual attraction on the other.  Folks who identify in between both ends are known broadly as gray ace, and may feel sexual attraction to some people 

The asexual pride flag was formalized in 2010 after an online vote by members of various asexual communities. 

  • White represents allosexuality (presence of sexual attraction)

  • Gray represents the gray ace folks in the asexual spectrum

  • Purple represents community, because the AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) website had a purple color scheme

  • Pink represents attraction to female identified people.

POLYSEXUAL

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To be sexually or romantically attracted to one or more genders.   The colors and design of the flag are based off the bisexual and pansexual flags, borrowing the blue and pink, and replacing the purple and yellow stripes with a green one

  • Green represents attraction to those outside female and male identity. 

  • Blue represents attraction to male identified people.

  • Purple represents the passion of drag we all share

  • White represents the blank slate that is our body and face that we all change to create the characters that we become

  • Blue represents self expression and loyalty

  • Crown represents leadership in the community

  • Stars represents the many forms of drag

Drag Pride

Flag

Designed by Clevelands own queen Veranda L'Ni, the flag was voted on by an elite panel of judges, one being Ohio's own Danyel Vasquez.  

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