arco-pluris:

antecessors or precursors of progress flag: an exploration

everyone knows that progress pride flag uses black and brown colors from Philadelphia’s pride flag plus rainbow flag colors and iteration of trans flag colors. but were there other similar flags? let’s explore and see.

where does the chevron come from? the first rainbow flags with chevrons were “Pink Triangle on the hoist of a Rainbow flag” (1996) and “Rainbow Flags with white triangle” (2006 or before; need to comment that white color in this flag represents, in Japan, “those who died from hate crimes and coexistence with friendships that still resist or face suffering”). Demigay flag (2010s) uses black chevron. Maybe these were all unrelated and H. Clinton logo may influenced the direction of the chevron as well.

Victory Over AIDS flag (1980s) is a rainbow flag with black stripe, using black color to represent “living with HIV/AIDS, and those lost to it”. This meaning is also used in Progress flag, along signifying BPoC people/Blackness. there are also flags that use black stripe in the middle to represent Black people, likely based on Raquel Willis’ design (2015).

white stripe is also seen in Love Fest (São Paulo) 9-striped diversity flag (2018). BLM fist and raised fist are also seen in QPOC flags since 2016 (also QTPOC), along with different shades of brown and black skin colors.

trans flag colors were also seen in rainbow flags or flag combos since at least the middle of 2010s.

Context:

Black Trans Flag (from Raquel Willis):

9 stripe LGBT flag revealed at Love Fest Festival, during carnival in Sao Paulo, Brasil, on Feb 12th 2018:

Pink Triangle on Rainbow Flag (from António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 May 1999):

From crwflags, “Another variant of the flag was photographed on 26 June 2005 in San Francisco, California, at the San Francisco Pride Parade 2005. This variant had a longer triangle, but the flag was more oblong as well (ratio 1:2 or very close). Here, violet color was at the top and almost all colors were darker than usual: for example, red was about the same as in the US national flag and violet was more like purple; the only exception was yellow, which was lighter than usual.(Tomislav Todorović, 29 October 2016)”

Hillary Clinton Logo:

Victory Over AIDs Flag:

From Pride Flag Guide, “The Victory Over AIDS flag was designed sometimes in the 1980s, and rose to prominence during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that had a profound effect on the Gay Community. It compromises of the rainbow flag, with an added black stripe at the bottom, to signify those living with HIV/AIDS, and those lost to it.

The flag was reportedly suggested by a San Francisco organisation, and Sergeant Leonard Phillip Matlovich – a Vietnam War veteran – suggested that the black stripe be removed, and all surviving flags featuring the black stripe burnt, once a cure for AIDS had been discovered. Sergeant Matlovich would lose his life due to complications from HIV/AIDS on the 22nd of June, 1988.”

Black Gay, Lesbian, and Trans Pride Flags (from beyond-mogai-pride-flags):

QPOC Flag (from queerwitchqueenofcolor):