Andrew Doyle

Who is Pride really for?

Credit: Getty Images

Towards the end of the first century AD, the Emperor Domitian rebranded the month of October as ‘Domitianus’. It will have troubled him that Julius Caesar and Augustus already had their own months, and this was a neat way to affirm his godlike status. Fast forward two millennia, and the high priests of the new religion of intersectionality have decreed that June shall henceforth be known as ‘Pride Month’.

For the next 30 days, cities throughout the UK will be festooned with the symbol of this new established church: the ‘Progress Pride’ flag. This eyesore will flutter above civic institutions, corporations, and high street shops. It will decorate tablemats in restaurant chains, be displayed as bunting in schools, maybe even splashed across the sides of police cars. Local councils have been known to repaint zebra crossings in this fashion, despite the cost to the taxpayer and complaints from disability groups that it can disorientate the partially-sighted and their guide dogs. So much for inclusivity. 

What happened to the old Pride flag? The six-stripe rainbow was a simple and joyful design representing the power of diversity. The new Progress Pride flag, by contrast, has added a chevron with the trans colours (blue, white and pink), black and brown to symbolise racial inclusivity, and a purple circle on a yellow background for intersex people. Last year, Microsoft published an expanded version of the flag, a crazed kaleidoscope of garish colours and shapes that really has to be seen to be believed.  

Such nonsense would be more widely ridiculed if the consequences for laughing were not so dire. Those who point out that Pride has become a parody of itself are accused of ‘transphobia’ and ‘hate’, a cynical but effective method of evading criticism.

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