Today is Flag Day, commemorating the two hundred and forty-sixth anniversary of the resolution of the Continental Congress that established a national flag for the United States of America.
The first, albeit unofficial, flag of the USA had been the Continental Colors, with a field of thirteen red and white stripes and a canton of the 1606-1801 version of the British Union Jack. But after the Declaration of Independence, this flag was no longer an appropriate national symbol. On June 14, 1777, therefore, the Continental Congress “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Since that day twenty-seven versions of the Stars and Stripes have flown over the Land of E Pluribus Unum.
But recently the US national flag has acquired a rival. Over at National Review Online, both Rich Lowry and Luther Ray Abel have articles up that excoriate that rival, the LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Flag. They argue that like the acronym it represents, the Pride Flag is a symbol of everything that’s stupid, divisive and offensive in postmodern progressivism. Also, they add, it’s really, really, ugly.
But it wasn’t the Pride Flag’s divisive message or aesthetic shortcomings that provoked Mr. Lowry and Mr. Abel to up periscope and fire all bow tubes. Their criticism focused on its increasingly prominent display by various government entities. Last week, for instance, the Pride Flag was unfurled on the balcony of the White House for an event to mark Pride Month 2023. It was flanked by two US National Flags—thus violating the protocol that the National Flag always takes precedence. When flown or displayed with other flags, it should be placed either on the viewer’s left or in the center of the group. But instead, the Biden Administration treated it as secondary in status to the Pride Flag.
As an amateur vexillologist (and you’re cordially invited to visit my website devoted to the subject) I agree with their criticisms. But though the Pride Flag is indeed an offensive eyesore, it does serve one useful purpose. The doctrine of intersectionality is central to po-mo progressive ideology, and the Pride Flag well reflects the intellectual and moral disarray that gave birth to it.
The current LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Flag was designed in 2021 by Valentino Vecchietti. It combines eleven colors in a design featuring six horizontal stripes, five horizontal chevrons, a triangle, and an open circle. As Mr. Lowry notes, the result has “all the visual appeal of a TV test pattern.” I will not belabor the reader with a description of the flag’s convoluted symbolism, but for those who may be interested, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health has it covered. Suffice it to say that its colors and design elements purport to represent a rainbow of diverse, marginalized communities, supposedly united by Pride.
But the unity portrayed by the Pride Flag is largely a sham. For instance, representing transgenderism and lesbianism on the same flag skates past the bad blood that exists between transgender women and actual women who happen to be lesbians. The former have repeatedly denounced the latter for declining to date or have sex with them, pretty much equating lesbianism with transphobia. And there are plenty of gay men who look askance at the concept of trans women, arguing with some plausibility that such transitions erase gay male identities.
The LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Flag got to be as ugly as it is because the comrades can never pass on an opportunity to signal their virtue. Brown and black chevrons were added because being gay, transgender, etc. and BIPOC somehow endows one with more marginalization and greater Pride. The open purple circle on the yellow triangle was added to honor the intersex community. According to Planned Parenthood, “Intersex is an umbrella term that describes bodies that fall outside the strict male/female binary. There are lots of ways someone can be intersex.” Yes, no doubt there are lots and lots of ways…
Needless to say, straight people, i.e. the overwhelming majority of human beings, go unrepresented on this banner of diversity.
But that’s not the worst of it. In the name of diversity, the LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Flag sends a political message that’s fundamentally divisive. Female athletes—by which I mean biological women—who’ve been bested by trans women—by which I mean biological males “identifying” as female—might see the Pride Flag as the symbol of their humiliation. Parents who’ve learned to their horror that public school teachers and staff were encouraging their children to “transition” might see the Pride Flag as a symbol of progressivism’s campaign to strip them of their parental rights. It is, in short, a middle finger flourished in the face of America.
Joe Biden and his minions probably thought that there were political points to be scored by treating the Pride Flag as a national symbol. If so, they were soon disabused of that notion. Hilariously, one of the attendees at the Pride 2023 event, a “transgender woman” calling himself Rose Montoya, bared his fake breasts for the cameras just minutes after shaking hands with the President and chatting him up.
Even for the despicable Biden Administration, this was a bit much. Montoya has been banned from the White House, a spokesman explaining that his lewd display violated basic standards of decency and social manners. “This behavior is inappropriate and disrespectful for any event at the White House,” the spokesperson huffed. “It is not reflective of the event we hosted to celebrate LGBTQI+ families or the other hundreds of guests who were in attendance. Individuals in the video will not be invited to future events.”
But really, what did they expect? Such things do tend to occur in the shadow of the LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Flag…
It doesn’t just reflect “the intellectual and moral disarray,” though I love that phrase, but it shows the reality crisis plaguing much of the body politic-- the reality crisis which to me is the defining problem of these times, on both the left and the right too. I mean the endless letters to the LGBTQ+2 and all those colors--it’s like a schizophrenic delusion. Schizophrenics are typified by their excess, indeed amazing, ability to see and create patterns everywhere, such that the plurality of sensations defines the world they inhabit like a disturbing mosaic. The LGBT community and their self-loathing progressive acolytes have what I would sociologically call a schizoid worldview, in which anyone can be anything. They even behave like schizophrenics in the way they command people to affirm their delusions for them.
Lowry’s piece cracked me up