We’re so accustomed to seeing flags, it’s easy to forget they have deep significance.
Who isn’t able to bring to mind the indelible image of the U.S. Marines hoisting the American flag in victory at Iwo Jima. Or American astronauts planting it on the moon? Or Colin Kaepernick kneeling in protest against the Stars and Stripes and the country for which it stands? Flags are partly why those images are seared into our collective minds.
Essentially, flags are symbols that represent values and beliefs. More than that, they represent a claim on both the land and, in many ways, the mind. Flags represent jurisdiction. They say with quiet authority: this symbol, and its attendant beliefs and values, has preeminence here. Flags matter, in other words. We don’t erect them for nothing.
Which is why the photo (above), from London’s kickoff of Pride month, has a menacing feeling. To me, it has an imperialist quality to it, like an occupation. All those beautiful rainbow colors can’t change that.
It’s not hyperbole to point out that the Pride flag is perhaps the only flag that truly knows no border. It’s suddenly everywhere all at once—in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and, indeed, the entire Western World. America, for the first time, is flying this flag above the US Treasury. Fortune 500 brands are awash in pride colors, bathing their logos and packaging in the now familiar colors. Even the Boy Scouts now salute this ubiquitous symbol. The U.S. Marines, Army and Navy all celebrate pride, even though the Pentagon banned flying flags at military bases in 2021.
Indeed, the Western world now celebrates Pride for one month straight. Yet by contrast—in America—Christmas, Veteran’s Day, the Fourth of July and Memorial Day are allotted but one day.
Moreover, the Pride flag seems to be rising in direct correlation to our lowering pride in the American flag. I don’t think this is unimportant. Societies need cohesion. If we take down the American flag because it’s supposedly “divisive,” some other flag—with its own symbols and meanings—will inevitably rise to take its place. One could argue that that replacement symbol is the Pride flag.
Yet what exactly does this Pride flag stand for? In 2019, GLAAD’s President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, told Oprahmag.com, the rainbow flag essentially stands for unity:
“At such a divisive time in our country, the rainbow — an iconic symbol of the LGBTQ community — aims to celebrate inclusivity, diversity and unity.” She then added, “By teaching young people about the importance of every color of the rainbow, Our Rainbow aims to encourage awareness, kindness, and acceptance for all.”
But is the Pride flag really inclusive? Additionally, as the Pride flag becomes ever-more dominant, can we honestly say America is growing more united?
After all, the rainbow flag doesn’t mean what it once did back in that distant past of 2019. The original rainbow flag is now quite antiquated, replaced by a plethora of new Pride flags. Where the rainbow symbol once represented gays and lesbians, it now represents a sweeping queer, hyper-politicized ideology that asserts radical, societal-changing ideas about sexuality and gender.
In fact, the number of queer identities seems to grow daily just as the movement’s acronym is ever adding letters, with no end in sight. First, it was LGB, then LGBT, then LGBTQ, then LGBTQAI+ and now, today, there’s LGBTQ2S+. I could explain what all these letters—and now numbers—mean, but it’s impractical, complicated, and unusable. Just like those endless “preferred pronouns” we’re also told we should use.
Indeed, the main purpose of the Pride flag today seems to be both to confuse and destroy our thousands-years-old understanding of the sex binary. Even homosexuality, which also affirms the binary reality of gender, has been relegated to the ash heap of yesterday’s antiquated views on sexuality. Society, it seems, is being shattered into hundreds of ever smaller shards of queer identities whose one common enemy is the binary understanding of sex.
Today, the Pride Flag, which comes in new ever-more complicated iterations, appears to be quite literally consuming itself. Each stripe represents yet another identity that competes for space on the finite flag. Increasingly, the symbol and its meaning feel like something akin to chaos and division, like something meant to estrange Americans from each other. Indeed, radical gender theory is doing exactly that, creating ideological fissures through families, communities, churches, corporations and government institutions.
Yet if you challenge radical gender ideology, prepare to have your life turned upside down. I’m not just talking about conservatives either. Ask tennis player, feminist, and lesbian Martina Navratilova, author J.K. Rowling, comedian Dave Chappelle or liberal journalist Matt Tiabbi—the list could go on. To question any queer theory assertion, no matter how ridiculous or how unscientific, is to assure one’s destruction. As Dave Chapelle once said, Hollywood’s one unwritten and unspoken rule is to never upset the “alphabet people.” Dave Chapelle, by the way, was recently physically assaulted for his comments during a live performance.
So, what do we do with a flag that demands total allegiance and whose adherents are religious zealots? How does one regard a flag that demands fealty to ideas that are based in fantasy, yet have very destructive real-world consequences? Consequences like women having to compete against biological men. Consequences like young girls having to share a bathroom with biological boys. Consequences like mandatory gender-affirming care which results in puberty blockers and “top and bottom surgeries” for teenagers.
Clearly, the queering of everything in the West is about disrupting our systems which are based on the binary reality of sex, regardless of the cost to women, children, and society. Yet, it seems to be about more than that. The Pride flag has also become the de facto symbol of progressivism. It has come to represent a hegemonic secular ideology that infiltrates institutions, transcends borders, and asserts a kind of ideological totalitarianism. The proof is that those who choose not to obey its imperial edicts are canceled, labeled “hateful,” and removed from polite society.
Writer and comedian, Andrew Doyle, author of “The New Puritans,” recently tweeted this: “For some, these flags represent diversity and inclusion. But for many, they symbolise an ideological movement that is hostile to gay people and women’s rights, opposes free speech, legitimizes violence and bullying, and hounds people out of their jobs if they fail to conform.”
I whole-heartedly agree. Something wicked is on the march and it’s wrapped in kaleidoscopic colors.
Indeed, the Pride flag has become a symbol for an intolerant occupying power—a kind of global, secular religion. It’s real purpose? To divide and conquer all who stand in its way.
Brett Craig is EVP, Creative at The Daily Wire. He has created multiple Superbowl ads and was featured on Adweek’s Top 50 movers and shakers list.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Daily Wire.