Bias Watch

Right-wingers freak out over “new Pride flag” that almost no one recognizes

Conservatives have resorted to just imagining new flags to be outraged about.
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The so-called "new Pride flag" cited by LibsOfTikTok is mostly a bunch of symbols overlaid on top one another
The so-called "new Pride flag" cited by LibsOfTikTok is mostly a bunch of symbols overlaid on top one another Photo: X screenshot

Chaya Raichik, who goes by Libs Of TikTok on social media, has discovered a “new more inclusive pride flag” to get outraged over — the only issue: Almost nobody in the LGBTQ+ community actually recognizes or flies the flag.

In an X post just before the start of Pride month, Raichik posted an image of the flag, writing, “I go offline for 2 days and there’s apparently a new more inclusive pride flag. Thoughts?”

Related:

Emblems of equality: Discovering the world of LGBTQ+ Pride flags

A handy guide to the history and significance of the most common LGBTQ+ Pride flags.

The flag is a mash-up of the original 1977 Gilbert Baker Pride flag — with its nine stripes, including the three stripes that were largely removed from all Pride flags barely three years later — overlaid with the left-side Progress Pride flag chyrons denoting queer people of color and transgender people.

Hooked around the chyrons is a purple ring outlined in yellow, denoting intersex individuals, and laid underneath those is a red umbrella signifying recognition of sex workers. Two triangular panels in the umbrella are pink — it’s unclear what the color represents — and the yellow, white, and orange bars of the little-known Maverique Pride flag, a flag for “those who are free to use any pronouns they like and express themselves in whatever way feels comfortable, regardless of gender. ”

While Raichik mocked the flag, a Google Reverse Image Search revealed that the image appears nearly nowhere else online. It certainly isn’t among the usually recognized flags and isn’t flying off the side of any LGBTQ+ bar or major queer organization.

Sometimes web artists will create new Pride flags to experiment with their designs. Even if they post these flags online, it doesn’t make them “official” by any means.

Numerous commenters on Raichik’s post said that future Pride flags will just feature every color known to mankind; that the U.S. flag is the only flag that matters; and that the flag represents Satan, the Freemasons, Antifa, and the shadowy fictional Umbrella Corporation responsible for zombie virus outbreaks in the Resident Evil video games.

One commenter on X posted a response image that said, “I can’t tell what’s real and what’s made up anymore.”

Raichik obviously shares that sentiment.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that right-wingers have made up things to get outraged over the Pride flag.

Last Pride Month, Fox News posted a dishonest story claiming that the White House flew a flag that shows “support for grooming & pedophilia.” In its article about the flag — which was just an intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag — Fox News quoted Jaimee Michell, the lesbian founder of the anti-transgender hate group Gays Against Groomers, and Maj Toure, a little-known rapper who opposes Black Lives Matter. Online commenters denounced Fox News for endangering LGBTQ+ people’s lives with its hate-mongering article.

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Chaya Raichik Libs of TikTok Progress Pride flag

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