poll: Residential Pride Flags--what do they mean to you?

[jesse_the_k]

I’m seeing more progress pride flags flying in my neighborhood. In the poll, I’m using “queer” in the broadest possible sense: any (sexual or gender) (orientation or preference). The poll is anonymous—even I can’t see who voted how.

Poll #32560 Pride Flag Messaging

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 70

When you see this flag flying on an unknown residence, what meaning do you take away?

View Answers

Someone queer lives there
36 (51.4%)

Someone who lives there has a queer family member
20 (28.6%)

Someone lives there and wishes to show support for queer folks, without any indication of the resident’s queer status
57 (81.4%)

Someone thinks the flag is pretty
2 (2.9%)

Someone wants to say, “let’s queer the universe, motherfuckers, cause the status quo is woeful.”
29 (41.4%)

See my answer in comments
5 (7.1%)

Ticky?

View Answers

is tacky
8 (17.8%)

is here
42 (93.3%)

Comments

[muccamukk]

I ticked most of the boxes. To be helpful.

[lunabee34]

Ha ha. Same.

[jesse_the_k]

Thank you!

[barbaratp]

Como alguém queer ver bandeiras de orgulho me torna mais do que feliz. Faz meu dia brilhar.

Do you see many flags

[jesse_the_k]

where you live? Pride flags or others?

(Flying flags has a complicated history in many parts of the USA.)

Re: Do you see many flags

[barbaratp]

Eu moro no Brasil, na capital do estado de Minas Gerais. Quando trabalhava no centro da cidade na época das eleições passadas muitas pessoas hastearam bandeiras de orgulho em luta contra o governo anterior que tentou se reeleger e era contra pessoas queer. Na rua da minha casa teve um vizinho que hasteou uma mas foi hostilizado, logo depois a família se mudou. Nunca os conheci mas adorava ver a bandeira. Mesmo sendo queer não tenho nenhuma bandeira comigo, nem broche/bottom mas gostaria de ter.

[adrian_turtle]

I read it as "queer or very strong ally," and not only queer but anti-TERF.

[jesse_the_k]

...ahhh! That makes sense.

[rydra_wong]

Yeah, with the progress pride flag in particular. That's not just general "love is love", it's specifically and pointedly including trans people (and POC). Someone who is either queer themselves or adjacent and close enough to the community to pick that specific flag rather than the default rainbow one.

[julian]

I think I generally assume there's someone who's an ally in a "I have a stake in the game" kind of way. (Friend/family member, etc.) Frequently are queer themselves, but don't *have* to be.

[jesse_the_k]

Ah ha.

[petra]

I assumed "Someone who lives here is queer" till I became friends with allies who flew a pride flag for Solidarity. So now I try to assume Solidarity.

Gilbert Baker = Ol' Faithful.

Progress Pride = Seriously up-to-date solidarity.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm glad that solidarity is showing up a lot in this poll!

[sanguinity]

Theoretically: someone who is plugged in to the current movement and wishes to show support, who may or may not be queer themselves.

Practically: probably someone who is queer, and better than even odds that they're under thirty.

ETA: One of the many things I like about the Progress flag is that it is unambiguously queer. My mom flies a rainbow windsock, but because she likes rainbows. (She once told me that she resented the gay movement for having "stolen" them.)

[jesse_the_k]

Most of the flag-flyers I'm seeing are in the over-50 cohort ... even more solidarity!

Oh, mom, really? She can slap these stickers anywhere she likes without any queer cooties

I remember those little stickers everywhere in the 70s-80s, especially on lunchboxes.

[sanguinity]

Yup, yup, yup. Mom loved those, back in the day. Did our winter coats up in rainbow trim, too.

[clevermanka]

And Mork's suspenders.

[jesse_the_k]

Ha!

[isis]

The Progress Pride flag was actually a recent point of contention locally (along with the Black Lives Matter flag); the tl;dr version is that a parent complained about these flags in classrooms, the school district banned them, the students and teachers protested, and after a hearing where many people said that the PP flag is to them a sign that they are included and respected, the school district reversed the ban and explicitly protected these particular flags...and now the Colorado GOP is suing (with inflammatory and offensive language).

https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2025/01/colorado-gop-threatens-to-sue-durango-school-district-over-pride-flag-resolution/66707/ is a non-paywalled overview of the events, if you're curious!

[jesse_the_k]

The GOP folks threatening to sue in their matching "bring back bullying" t shirts kinda says it all.

[thistleingrey]

I've been schooled by a teenager that that version omits the yellow circle for intersex folks. Separately, by now I've met a bunch of Etsy listings from rather narrow-minded sellers which use a version of an inclusive queer flag (T-shirts, enamel pins, etc.) but merely want filthy money, or whatever; I've learned to check before spending.

Serious question

[jesse_the_k]

What clues you in to the sellers' skinny brains? Other items in their store?

Huh .... found a intersex-inclusive sample with a yellow field + purple circle

https://www.thepinknews.com/2021/06/07/progress-pride-flag-intersex-flag/

Re: Serious question

[thistleingrey]

Yes. Perhaps it's my narrow bias instead, but if they're willing to sell nonironic goods about e.g. what a family really consists of (husband-led), maybe they don't need my money for goods bearing rainbows, ace colors, what have you.

My error for typing "yellow" by itself--it is purple on yellow generally (I've also seen a circle on pink). Thanks for linking an actual example!

[panisdead]

In TX, I assume rainbow flags mean you're queer yourself--I have a rainbow bumper sticker and it was kind of a big deal for me back when I slapped it on the car, because I was pretty sure I'd be inviting questions/speculation (I was). It actually had not occurred to me before this post that you might make different assumptions about different versions of the flag other than, "Oh, they got the most recent version." This probably says as much about me as it does about TX. *eyeroll emoji*

[jesse_the_k]

We are all always learning!

[spiralsheep]

I read the weirdest conspiracy theory about this flag in a novel last week - not hostile, just weird. :-)

Tell me more

[jesse_the_k]

Or at least the title!

Re: Tell me more

[spiralsheep]

Oh, it was an intentionally surreal novel written by a queer person and it mentioned that the guy who designed the rainbow flag(s) used to be in the US military (very briefly, obv) and that [something I wasn't fully paying attention something] the order of the arrows (?) and/or stripes is the same as the "Rainbow Codes" used in the UK space program for the rockets (which were originally missiles, I think?). Anyway:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Code

And the novel was We are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner, which is very specifically British in its concerns (eep Brexit).

Aside: Waidner's latest Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is a better novel and blends its surreality with more traditional speculative fiction but I'd say it's still only for people who have available patience and brain-effort for experimental fiction. Short review:

https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/639292.html

Re: Tell me more

[jesse_the_k]

Fascinating! Thanks for the peek inside a book that's beyond me.

[walgesang]

I think (where I live anyway) it can be a little bit of column A or B (queer person lives there and/or solidarity). I live in apartment so we don't have a porch or a lawn, but we have a Black Lives Matters sign in one window and a "You Are Loved" sign by Transpainter which is a lovely combination of the Progress Pride flag and flowers. But I think (and I hope) that the more flags that go up in solidarity it's less of a way a random person to know (or think they know) if a queer person lives there.

[jesse_the_k]

Oh! I've seen many "you are loved" signs and thanks for telling me about the designer, RAE SENARIGHI.

More solidarity is what we need right now.

[walgesang]

You're welcome! I first saw that particular sign at a booth for queer youth, so it makes me happy every time I see it. :)

I was telling someone that I feel like I've seen the most solidarity in the worst of times, so here's hoping!

[satsuma]

A while back, friend of mine (not queer but is v much an ally) bought a philly pride flag a while back (the one that inspired the progress flag, which just has the brown and black stripes added across the top instead of the chevron) but accidentally got it in "ridiculously large". So she replaced it with a slightly more moderately sized progress pride flag for her porch and we (queer) took the redic large one to queer up our porch. My parents also fly a rainbow flag most of the year (have queer family members/are queer allies) as do their next door neighbors (gay and very much activists). So we've collectively covered all your options I think haha

There's one house I walk past pretty regularly which flies the equality flag (yellow equal sign on a blue background, from the HRC) who's next door neighbor likes to fly gross trumpy flags so while I don't know either of them I've always taken it to be an attempt at counterbalancing the vibes more or less.

Perfect icon is perfect

[jesse_the_k]

Ha!

We're big on flags in our town, although relatively few US flags (except for right after 9/11). I don't think I've ever seen an HRC flag in the wild.

Cuban Ricardo Gonzalez flew the six-color flag over the Cardinal Bar starting in 1980. It wasn't Madison's first gay bar but it definitely had the best music. On game days there are Badgers, Packers, Chicago Cubs, Michigan Timberwolves, and more I'm not recognzing flopping all over the neighborhood.

[ysobel]

It's a 'one of these things' situation -- I chose multiple, but my immediate thought is "is queer or knows/loves someone queer" followed by "...or wishes to show support, regardless of residents' queer status".

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for chiming in

[azurelunatic]

It's a house where I would probably be safe to come to the door and ask to get my water bottle refilled.

On the plus side

[jesse_the_k]

....more water.

On the minus side, it's a fucking scary world out there.

[starlady]

Queer or queer-supporting, and someone who is explicitly pro-trans and at least notionally anti-racist.

Makes sense

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for chiming in

[killing_rose]

I remain salty the 2021 update is almost never found in the wild. (Like. I attended most of this year's local Pride Season, and I don't think I saw that one at any of them.)

Now that said, if I see the Progress flag, esp because while the city tends to be pretty blue, if I step foot anywhere in the county, I now have to worry "how likely is it that someone's gonna assault me"*, then my default is "cool, cool, this person probably won't murder me."

It's also more likely in this area that they'll espouse more queer values--so they might lean towards socialism or anarchy or whatnot because they would like to burn this motherfucker down.

*answer: VERY.

[jesse_the_k]

It's a scary time!

I've never seen the 2021 version in the wild either.

[dhampyresa]

Solidarity -- though flying flags isn't really a thing in France outside of protests and concerts/sporting events.

Also I clicked "pretty" box because I think it's pretty, though I like the intersex included one even more.