A drag queen in Manchester, UK has come under fire for a promotional poster which depicts a unicorn throwing up black and brown Pride Flag stripes.
Peggy Wessex (real name Steven Gale) got more than she bargained for promoting her “Taste the Rainbow” show. The flyer for the show–which also circulated as an image on social media–caused a stir of outrage over its perceived racism.
The city of Manchester previously announced that it would adopt the revised version of the Pride Flag for use in promotion of its Pride Festival to better represent racial diversity. The move met with a mixed reception. While some praised the move as a sign of inclusivity, others criticized the changes to the Pride Flag for breaking with traditional symbolism that no color of the flag represents a racial group.
Related: A Chicago priest burned a Pride flag outside his church, and people are pissed
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Wessex has since removed the image from her social media, though has stopped short of apologizing. “It was meant to be a joke at Manchester Pride who just decided to add the colors,” Wessex said. “So some people think it’s offensive because it’s the black and brown color? The rainbow flag was made so it was inclusive of everyone.” Bar Pop, the venue hosting Wessex’s show, did issue a full apology noting “[w]e are sorry for any harm, upset or offense caused by the posting.”
The 8-striped Pride Flag first debuted in Philidelphia in 2017. Members of the city’s LGBT Affairs Department debuted the flag to highlight people of color within the queer community. The move met with a divisive response at the time, with critics noting that the designer of the flag, Gilbert Baker, chose the colors to represent elements of the human spirit, not race or skin color.
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QueerTruth
“A drag queen in Manchester…” LOL. Enough said.
This is not a story.
We are so anxious to divide ourselves and hungry for a juicy story to cry injustice. It needs to stop. Red/Blue. Black/White. Oye. The queer community can do much better than this.
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Creamsicle
Stuff like this is going to happen when you try to change a cultural icon, whether or not the people doing it are racists.
I had never heard of an attempt to add brown and black to the pride flag until this post, and I actually do agree that the pride flag is already designed to be inclusive to begin with. Adding a black and brown stripe is unnecessary and doesn’t actually do anything to promote real inclusivity. If we want to promote real inclusivity.
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S.anderson
African Americans and Latinx people looked at the existing flag, and saw stripes representing LIFE – HEALING – SUNLIGHT – NATURE – HARMONY and SPIRIT. And they shook their fists saying “HEY! I’m not represented there! I demand my own stripe! And don’t you be telling me no, you racists!”
Adding black and brown stripes to “include” AA & Lx people actually makes it exclusive. Continuing on this path, there’s all the myriad other races to tack on now. The rainbow stripes HAD BEEN all-inclusive. With these added stripes, it literally excludes anyone not AA or Lx.
wiredpup
Agreed ?
Kangol
Get a grip. It wasn’t all “African Americans and Latinx people,” it was a particular set of activists. You don’t help yourself when you characterize entire groups of people based on the actions of a few. You wouldn’t want it to happen to white people or gay people, would you? So don’t do it to other groups!
S.anderson
@Kangol Obviously, I know it was a small group of activists who claim to represent entire groups. Why don’t you fling a bit of your wrath their way instead of at someone like me who is only bringing the picture into focus for the rest of us? Thanks.
QueerTruth
That’s completely wrong. Gay pride is that. Gay and that includes every color, nation, religion, language, gender. This has been the case since the 70’s. You make it sound like white men create homosexuality or gay pride. Last time I looked the gay pride flag is flown in every single country (that allows it). That means Europeans, Africans, Asians, Latinos, and so-forth. It’s a rainbow… do you see a white stripe? No. Because that’s not what it’s about.
Adding the black and brown stripes is insulting to those communities, because it makes it sound as if they were included before. They were always were.
This is not the way to deal with racism in the gay world. You are only alienating those communities.
Catholicslutbox
Sorry bro but there’s not such thing as “african americans” in the UK. They’re just “black” or “british.” “Black” isn’t exactly a pejorative term- Americans just try to be extra pc and tend to only pop out “AA” when in the presence of a black person.
Also, “brown” isn’t representative of “latinx,” it’s representative of the asian community- pakistan/india/etc
That said, the flier is in poor taste. but looking at her, I’m not surprised. Such lazy drag. Rupaul is going to be in serious trouble if that’s the quality of queens he recruits.
wiredpup
Good for her. This whole thing is nothing but BS. Don’t like the Pride flag as it is, then maybe you should make your own instead of appropriating a symbol already know for its inclusiveness.
iamru2
Lol too funny! “Racist” has lost much of its impact due to ridiculous situations like this. Let’s focus on real racism.
Patsy Stoned 75
I hope she’s funny. Sure is ugly.
russdog
The drag queen’s racism aside, simply adding black and brown colors to a rainbow flag is a lazy way to effect change. It gives some people the mistaken idea that something significant has actually been done to be inclusive of marginalized groups within the gay community. It does nothing of the sort. If you want to make changes, start with yourself. Talk to people, find common ground and interests with those who don’t look like you. Invite people to your parties, include folks you wouldn’t ordinarily hang out with. Make an effort to meet people who aren’t conveniently within your social circle. Be open to new ideas and accept the differences among your peers instead of being defensive. These are some of the ways to make a change for the better with respect to racial and cultural inclusiveness. Fighting to get additional “rainbow” colors added when you don’t make changes in your personal life is meaningless. If you already include a wide variety of people in your circle of friends and social interactions, then what’s on the rainbow flag doesn’t matter.
S.anderson
The drag queen isn’t racist. She merely said exactly what you just did, with graphics instead of an essay. The racism exists in the imaginations of hawks looking for something to sell ads with.
Luna1979
London pride 2018 flew the normal flag. No one fainting in the streets over it.
I absolutely detest the idea of racializing The Flag. Sexuality and gender has not a damn to do with skin color. I refuse to accept this new monstrosity and I refuse to let these insane, small gangs of the Perpetually Offended dictate what I accept or assume what or who I do not. If they can’t understand the meaning of The Flag, definitely not my problem.