This Mardi Gras season you’ll be able to spot new street banners incorporating the Progress Pride flag along George Street, William Street and, Newtown’s main thoroughfare, King Street.
The Progress Pride flag was created by non-binary artist and designer Daniel Quasar. They added a 5-coloured chevron to the left of the iconic rainbow flag.
The new colours of pink, light blue and white call back to the Transgender Pride Flag while the black and brown stripes represent marginalised LGBTIQ communities of colour. The black also represents those living with AIDS and those who have passed away from the disease.
Quasar wanted to place a greater emphasis on “inclusion and progression.”
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the flags “demonstrate that our precincts are inclusive and safe and that the City supports all within the LGBTIQ community.”
The new flag will fly at Sydney Town Hall throughout the Mardi Gras season. It will also permanently fly at Taylor Square.
Chris Terry volunteers at the Gender Centre and welcomes the new flag. For him, the new flag serves as a visual reminder that “what the LGBTQIA+ community have in common isn’t our sexuality, our cisness or transness, or our colour - but an ambition of being true to ourselves.”
“We have evolved, so must our symbols.” - Nola Moran
The rainbow flag has represented the LGBTIQ community since 1978. But Erskineville resident Nola Moran has seen how much the community has evolved and feels the new flag “embraces the full LGBTQI+ community and acknowledges those that have so often been invisible.”
Trans people are celebrated in the Progress Pride flag. Linda Chalmers, photographed with her trans daughter Indica, is grateful the community has the courage to embrace change.
“I’m so happy to know there is a loving and supportive community for my daughter.”
ACON community health promotion officer Rex Zhang said flying the new flag showed governments and organisations were open to new perspectives.
“It’s a gesture to say we are committing to these changes, to be more inclusive of the trans community, of people of colour.”