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The purpose of pride flags

If you live in the 21st century, chances are, you've seen a pride flag at some time or another. Here are some examples:
The classic pride flag, a six-color rainbow
Classic Pride (Guanaco and subsequent editors, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The bisexual pride flag, with three stripes- a pink one, a smaller purple one and a larger blue one
Bisexual pride (Michael Page, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The transgender pride flag, with five strips- the top and bottom baby blue, the second and fourth pastel pink, and the centre white
Transgender pride (Dlloyd, based on Monica Helms' design, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The lesbian pride flag, with seven strips forming a graident from orange to purple, with white in the centre
Lesbian pride (L ke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Looking at these, some similiarites emerge: Indeed, these are some common properties of pride flags. However, there are a pair of "pride" flags which I find baffling. Here they are, direct from Wikimedia, for your viewing (or cringing) pleasure:
The straight pride flag, composed of alternating black and white stripes
The straight pride flag (Nikki, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
The 'super'-straight pride flag, composed of two squares, one orange and one black
The 'superstraight' pride flag (via Wikemedia Commons)
A clarification on the 'superstraight' pride flag- it was an attempt to rebrand transphobia around having intercourse with trans people as it's own bona fide sexuality, and is thusly closely tied to the 'redpill' movement and terminally online rightist extremists.

Why these aren't pride flags

A pride flag serves two purposes: to provide a symbol for community, like a national flag; and to serve as a shibboleth to indicate inclusion in that community in a way that is obvious to other members of the group, but passes by others unknown, like a handkerchief in the back pocket. The heterosexual pride flag is, of the two, the least disagreeable. While it is true that straight people need not announce their identity to have it affirmed and that straight people have no issue finding others to associate with, there are a few limited times where the straight pride flag does become such. At a pride parade, for example, straight people are generally a minority there and the flag does signal inclusion in a particular group that would be non-obvious. However, at a Nazi parade, the black-and-white bars are not a symbol of community, but a symbol of hate. The subtext of flying that flag at that place (usually next to a swastika) is not one of "I exist", but one of "If you can demonstrate and show solidarity with your brethren, then I can with mine"—- ignoring the fact that Nazism is not a sexuality.

A super-straight flag more firmly falls in the camp of the latter parade. While the heterosexual flag has limited but useful applications, the super-straight flag has no useful application. The super-straight flag appeared on TikTok in 2021[2]. The creator claimed that Women that are born women so you can't say I'm transphobic now because that's just my sexuality you know. With its hateful origin and its hateful perpetuation, the promulgation of the super-straight flag does not appear to be intended to represent the sexuality of the wearer in a useful manner or invite community, but instead as a shibboleth of hate — but a swastika does that just as well.

[1]: Snopes. "Did the 'Super Straight' Trend Originate With Nazis on 4chan?". 2021. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/super-straight-nazis-4chan/


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