It includes a section asking people to evaluate whether Baker’s flag “represents all of who I am as an LGBTQ+ person” and whether the flag is “a historic symbol that has stood the test of time.” A town hall on the topic is being planned by the district in late September. Just this week, the district initiated a survey asking residents and visitors about their experiences in the Castro. Todd Trumbull / The Chronicle See More Collapse
This month, leadership at the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, one of the eight city-designated cultural districts in San Francisco, said it, too, was in favor of seeing a contemporary flag flown from the pole and that it is “time for us to show our Black, Brown, and Trans siblings how much representation matters to us on this board.”Ĭreated by Gilbert Baker in 1978 at the former Gay Community Center on Grove Street, the Gay Pride rainbow flag is seen by some as a progenitor of all LGBTQ community flags.Įach of the colors carries a specific meaning. Earlier in 2020, a petition urging that the Castro flagpole fly the Pride Progress Flag attracted nearly 500 signatures. Sacramento Pride, it pointed out, had flown the Progress Pride Flag, a rainbow designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018 that includes the Transgender Flag colors and black and brown stripes.
The editorial noted that Oakland Pride organizers had updated its logo to include the colors brown and black for racial inclusion, along with the pink, white and blue of the Transgender Flag. Its editorial came after a town hall meeting held by the Bay Area Queer Nightlife Coalition about racism and bias in the Castro, and said that flying a contemporary variation would “send a strong symbolic message of the values that the community strives to uphold.”
What is the order of the gay pride colors install#
The public debate over the flag began in earnest in August 2020, when LGBTQ newspaper the Bay Area Reporter suggested the Castro Merchants Association, which oversees and maintains the flagpole, should install a “more inclusive” version of the rainbow flag. One longtime Castro resident and business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, described the situation as “the left eating its own.” Several people contacted by The Chronicle for this story declined to be interviewed, saying they found the discourse around the issue toxic and they feared getting involved. Interactive: A guide to pride flags and whom they representįor months, a discussion about just what flag should fly from the pole located at Harvey Milk Plaza at Castro and Market streets has provoked strong feelings. The ongoing movement to reconsider, and sometimes remove, some public monuments and artworks has taken aim at what many agree are outdated and problematic symbols: Confederate generals, Christopher Columbus and Junipero Serra, to name a few.īut Gilbert Baker’s rainbow Gay Pride Flag? Stephen Lam/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less Jerry Telfer Show More Show Less 4 of4Ī protester wearing a cat mask looks from a balcony while holding a rainbow flag as protesters march on Polk Street during the People’s March celebrating Pride and protesting against racial injustice, police violence, unjust healthcare and inadequate unemployment relief in San Francisco on June 28, 2020. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle 2015 Show More Show Less 3 of4 Leah Millis/The Chronicle 2016 Show More Show Less 2 of4Ī person standing reaches up to touch a rainbow flag covering the entrance at City Hall on Jin San Francisco after the Supreme Court’s decision that gays and lesbians have the constitutional right to marry nationwide. Marchers carry a giant transgender flag during the annual Trans March from Dolores Park to the Tenderloin on Jin San Francisco.