The Pride Flag

To celebrate Pride Month and the recent Supreme Court decision making it illegal to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, we have placed this new symbol outside South Church.

An untold number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people perished in Nazi concentration camps, along with many others who were targeted because of their perceived sexuality and/or gender identity. While imprisoned they were forced to wear pink triangular badges. In the 1970s, the pink triangle was reappropriated by American LGBTQ rights activists who hoped to transform it into a symbol of Queer Liberation; but for many, it was too freighted with painful history to be empowering. In 1977 San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to serve in elected office in the United States, urged activist Gilbert Baker to design a new symbol. Thus, the rainbow flag was born.

“We needed something beautiful,” Baker said, “something from us.” Produced by a team of 30 volunteers who commandeered a local laundromat and stitched panels together in the attic of a gay community center, this flag was displayed for the first time in United Nations Plaza in San Francisco in June of 1978. Tragically, five months later, Harvey Milk was assassinated. But in the wake of his death, activists filled the streets and the rainbow flag proliferated. In the years since, the rainbow flag has emerged all over the world as a symbol of celebration of LGBTQ identities and of resistance to oppression – from Tehran to Tel Aviv, Shanghai to Sao Paolo, Jakarta to Johannesburg, New York to Berlin.

Then graphic artist Daniel Quasar updated this powerful symbol to specifically acknowledge Trans folx and queer people of color – whose voices and experiences have too often been disregarded in society, and even within the movement for Queer Liberation.  Incorporating the rainbow flag, the Transgender Pride flag (designed by Monica Helms in 1999), brown and black chevrons, and even a nod to the pink triangle – Quasar unveiled his “Pride Progress” flag  in 2018.

Great strides have been made, but for many the progress has arrived too late. Many lives have been lost in this struggle and there are many still awaiting justice. Too often the church has been complicit in the oppression of LBGTQ people, through active discrimination and through the implied consent of our silence. We believe God calls us to a different response. To South Presbyterian Church, this flag symbolizes decades of fighting for freedom and dignity. We are proud to have played a small role in that fight. With this flag, we announce our gratitude to the countless, courageous LGBTQ leaders who came before us and we signal our commitment to continuing the fight.

LGBTQ people should never again have to guess where they will be physically, psychologically and spiritually safe, where they will be affirmed and celebrated in the fullness of who they are. We hope this flag makes our position clear.  God stands with Queer folks. So do we.