LGB ErasureHow long do we have until waving the old rainbow flag becomes transphobic?

submitted by cutenoobies from (self.LGBDropTheT)

Everywhere we see the new flag with trans strips invading the rainbow part is being used. Some rabid trans supporters are becoming angry and saying "if you don't like the new flag, block me."

Can we expect in the future for that flag to become the norm and the old flag deemed as transphobic? If yes, how do we counter that right now?

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[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 49 insightful - 10 fun49 insightful - 9 fun50 insightful - 10 fun -  (1 child)

I feel like people are going to start accusing the old flag of becoming a "dog whistle" soon. They will accuse the people who use the old flag of being disingenuous like "Oh, I had no clue the old flag was an antiquated symbol of LGB supremacy that erased TQ+ lives and literally murdered trans women of color who died for our rights, I'm just old/ignoraant and don't internet, tee-hee!"

[–]windrunner 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I feel like people are going to start accusing the old flag of becoming a "dog whistle" soon.

Or that it isn't "inclusive" enough lmao

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 22 insightful - 3 fun22 insightful - 2 fun23 insightful - 3 fun -  (9 children)

Don't get me started on the flags with the black and brown stripes. Waving the old flag will get you called racist as well.

I hate the old flag as well, but it's not as bad as the new ones.

[–]oatcake 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

May I ask why you hate the old flag? Genuine question from someone who doesn't know much of the history.

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

All these colours makes the flag look weird. Six colours. Plagiarising the rainbow. As much as I like rainbows, I don't see why they represent my sexual orientation. I just don't understand. Maybe I'm wrong? How about a p flag with two male figures on one side, and two female figures on the other side? I dunno what colours there should be, but there should be no more than three.

[–]MezozoicGayoldschool gay 10 insightful - 5 fun10 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

I think flag that nowadays representing bisexuality is perfect to be LGBT flag. Everyone is represented on it. While rainbow is like word "queer", it describes "too much" and no one understand "too much of what exactly".

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Good point.

[–]arc-en-ciel 7 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

I'm gonna be honest, that suggestion makes me think of washroom signs haha

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Haha. Didn’t notice.

[–]crypkidsformally 'rezkidsinlove' 22 insightful - 3 fun22 insightful - 2 fun23 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I'm not really someone who does things like wear gaudy rainbow-printed whatever to 'show my pride', tshirts/shoes/etc --- but I admit, I've been buying a few pieces here and there because of this, because I imagine it's going to be harder and harder to find the regular flag with just the 6 colors as the years go on. (Also just because I'm a contrarian asshole. If they say my orientation is 'transphobic' then I'll by those bisexual shoelaces and put them in a pair of shoes I own. ((But just one pair.))

I feel like the labry's flag especially is considered a dogwhistle, and as such, finding items with that design is getting harder? At least when I search for 'bisexual' stuff on say, etsy, it's always a lot easier to find random crap than it is to find 'labrys lesbian' stuff.

[–]OPPRESSED_REPTILIANIntersex male | GNC | Don't call me "a gay", "twink" or "queen" 20 insightful - 2 fun20 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

If you google rainbow flag the "edited" versions show up first.

I'm convinced Google controls what results come first, because there's no way in hell the "new" rainbow flags have more views and more popularity than the original already. There's also other evidence, such as Google Images showing obscure extremist propaganda as the first result, when googling anything from food to medical conditions.

[–]cutenoobies[S] 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I have observed that as well. I did a search on google the other day- "list of human rights of women attacked by trans movement", and it just showed me the results of how trans rights are under attack on the first page.

I did the same search on bing, and over there i got list of feminist blogs and other links which gave me what i needed.

Google also recently gave 300k pounds to Pink News of which PN's CEO bragged about on his twitter about lobbying and shit. Google is not the friend anymore.

[–]MezozoicGayoldschool gay 8 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Results are sorted by how much Google was paid as well. So even if Google is not propaganding it themselves, they are getting paid to push this narrative. And we all know that trans movement in last years is getting tremendous amounts of money to support their narratives.

[–]OPPRESSED_REPTILIANIntersex male | GNC | Don't call me "a gay", "twink" or "queen" 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

In that case I wanna know where trans people and militant vegans are getting so much bribing money. Especially since both groups tend to claim that they're poor and oppressed.

[–]MezozoicGayoldschool gay 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

If you call "misgendering" as oppression and "spending thousands of pounds on HRT and surgery" as poor, then everyone can be poor and oppressed, that is for sure.

[–]lavender_menace 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Seems it’s time to switch the search engine on about every device I own.

[–]arc-en-ciel 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

For me the edited one shows up as the fourth result, and that's because it's part of a new article (which seems to have gotten enough clicks to boost it as a result). Maybe it's based somewhat on location and what results get the most attention in your area?

[–]supersmokio6420 12 insightful - 5 fun12 insightful - 4 fun13 insightful - 5 fun -  (2 children)

Have a friend who raised the idea of stickers saying "its OK to be gay" on the original rainbow flag, similar in concept to the "its OK to be white" stickers. Would love to see the reaction if those started cropping up.

[–]crypkidsformally 'rezkidsinlove' 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The problem is, they've co-opted gay to be 'an umbrella term' now.

There needs to be a slogan that specifically uses the word 'homosexual' or something.

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I hope those stickers do prop up.

[–]LesbiSilly 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Next week. And just keep posting the rainbow flag and putting LGBT under it. Remind them it's inclusive of all.

[–]Lzzbian777 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I think that’s what’s gonna happen. And I think the best response would be to completely ignore them and stick to your guns. Like they’ve done to all of us

[–]fuck_reddit 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Buy as many of the original as you can. Money talks.

[–]Twilight_Zone 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Are there any gay owned companies who sell rainbow merch who also don’t pander to the trans?

[–]GayNotQueer 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The flag was designed to be easy to physically make (unlike these newer variations). Also, it was designed to communicate a truth -- that gay people come from, literally, all walks of life, and we are the only community that has people in it from every group on the planet. The metaphor is based on an old idea -- that as people we are varied -- as many colours as a rainbow has which is infinite.

[–]Revision10Just a guy 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well I've seen the Trans BBC flag here in SF, so once that version is (more) distributed then any version without their overbearing presence will be transphobic

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Never. The rainbow is a sacred symbol of our homosexual god

[–]writerlylesbian 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I might start actually getting some rainbow stuff if it becomes a symbol of outlaws.

[–]wafflegaffWoman. SuperBi. 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I didn't see anyone mention this yet, so: It is of course anathema to say this around ignorant narcissistic people, but the original rainbow flag had meanings for each color which were not related to sexual orientation or other identity features:

https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-rainbow-flag-become-a-symbol-of-lgbt-pride

"Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit)."

So these new flags are pure idiocy. They are tone-deaf and entirely miss the point. None of the colors of the rainbow on the rainbow flag refer to information about who we are sleeping with or what body parts we have, etc.

A loved one bought one of the new flags thinking she was doing the right thing, until I explained the issues at hand, warned her to just back the fuck out of that whole dialogue lest she say something logical to the wrong person at some point, tuck that thing in a drawer and wait for sanity to return. Fortunately she listened.