The International Co-operative Alliance adopted a rainbow flag in 1925. Ĭontemporary international uses of a rainbow flag dates to the beginning of the 20th century. In the 18th century, American Revolutionary War writer Thomas Paine proposed that a rainbow flag be used as a maritime flag to signify neutral ships in time of war.
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5 Use of rainbow flag colors in different designs.4 Use of rainbow flag in various settings.2.6 LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride (1978).2.2 Armenian Republic proposed flag (1919).2 Rainbow flags in various cultures and movements.In the immortal words of Oscar Wilde: “We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars. It signals that the LGBT+ community has finally succumbed – like much of mainstream society – to the depressing politics of conformism, respectability and moderation.Īs we remember Stonewall at 50, let’s also remember that GLF showed that the world doesn’t have to be this way. This political retreat signifies a huge loss of confidence and optimism. Many of us would, it seems, prefer to embrace traditional heterosexual aspirations, rather than critique them and strive for a liberating alternative. The focus on these safe, cuddly issues (worthy though they are) suggests that queers are increasingly reluctant to rock the boat. Whereas GLF derided the family as a patriarchal prison that enslaved women, gay people and children, the biggest LGBT+ campaigns of recent years have been for marriage and parenting rights. These were revolutionary ideas, and they still are.īut look what’s happened since then.
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This included living communally and cooperatively, gender-subversive radical drag and non-possessive multi-partner open relationships. And for straight, non-binary and cis gender people, too.Īs well as opposing the way things were, GLF outlined an alternative imagining of how society and personal relationships could be. There would be sexual freedom and human rights for everyone – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Erotic shame and repression would be banished, together with the privileging of monogamy, the traditional family and rigid male and female gender roles. Our vision involved creating a new sexual democracy, without homophobia, misogyny, racism or class privilege. Making common cause with the women’s, black and workers’ movements, gay liberationists wanted fundamental social change and pursued an intersectional strategy of standing together with all oppressed people. It questioned not just anti-LGBT+ prejudice and discrimination but also marriage, the nuclear family, monogamy and patriarchy. GLF set out a far-sighted agenda for a nonviolent revolution in cultural values and attitudes. Our battle cry was “innovate, don’t assimilate”.Ī GLF banner at a women’s march, 1971. We wanted to change society, not conform to it. Our LGBT+ psyche has been colonised by a hetero-normative mentality. We’ve internalised straight thinking and become “hetero homos” – straight minds in queer bodies. The trend is to become carbon copies of heterosexuality. Many of us seem to aspire to little more than an LGBT+ version of straight family life. We have been mainstreamed, which on one level is great, but mainstreamed on heterosexual terms. Increasingly, LGBT+ culture has lost its critical edge. They happily settle for equal rights within the existing social order often uncritically seeking what straights have, no matter how dubious.
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Most queers no longer dissent from the values, laws and institutions of mainstream society. Much of LGBT+ is part of the neoliberal establishment. It has become monetised: we pay to march, the city authorities extort vast charges from the Pride organisers and we are encouraged to buy rainbow-branded merchandise to express our sexual and gender identity. Our community organisations have become increasingly corporatised and exploited, with UK Pride parades often dominated by big business sponsors and floats, vote-seeking politicians and state agents such as the police, who brag about their LGBT+ inclusiveness but have not apologised or compensated us for their decades of oppression. Almost entirely LGBT+-focused, it rarely links with other social movements. In contrast, much of today’s LGBT+ movement has retreated from the ideals and vision of the GLF pioneers. It advocated unity and solidarity between all victims of injustice. GLF also uniquely sought political alliances with other marginalised communities to work for our common emancipation.