Is Pride Still About Dignity or Did Politics Steal the Rainbow?
Written by Peter Boykin on June 1, 2026
Is Pride Still About Dignity or Did Politics Steal the Rainbow?
#GoRightNews Shared by Peter Boykin
American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist / Activist / Constitutionalist for Liberty
Is Pride Still About Dignity or Did Politics Steal the Rainbow?
Pride Month arrives every year with the same predictable noise. Some people celebrate it. Some people roll their eyes. Some people immediately start posting memes. Some ask why it still exists at all. Some are exhausted by what it has become. Others remember why it began in the first place. That tension is exactly why this conversation matters, because Pride is no longer one simple thing in the eyes of the American public. To some, it is a celebration of visibility and dignity. To others, it has become a symbol of corporate pandering, activist politics, school controversies, public indecency, and cultural overload.
Before America jumps straight into the shouting, maybe it is worth slowing down long enough to ask a better question. What was Pride supposed to be? Not what radical activists turned it into. Not what corporations sell every June. Not what opponents reduce it to when they share the worst possible parade clip from some big city and pretend every gay person signed off on it. What was the purpose behind the symbol, the march, the flag, and the idea that gay Americans should not have to live in silence?
At its core, Pride was about visibility. It was about dignity. It was about memory. It was about equal treatment under the law. It was about people who had been told to hide, stay quiet, lose their jobs, lose their families, lose their rights, and accept life as second class citizens deciding that silence was no longer enough. In America, that should bring us back to one foundation above all others: the Constitution.
That is where this conversation belongs. Not in the hands of the radical Left. Not in the hands of corporate marketing departments. Not in the hands of people who want to erase gay Americans because they are angry about unrelated activist agendas. Pride should be examined through the lens of liberty, equal protection, free speech, freedom of association, religious liberty, parental rights, and the simple truth that gay Americans are still Americans.
The Story Behind the Rainbow Pride Flag
The Pride flag most Americans recognize did not begin as a government symbol. It did not begin as a corporate logo. It did not begin as a partisan campaign banner. It began as a community symbol created by people who wanted a visible sign that gay people existed, mattered, and deserved dignity in public life.
Artist and activist Gilbert Baker created the original rainbow flag in 1978 for San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day celebration. According to the GLBT Historical Society, the original rainbow flag displayed eight colored stripes and was created by Baker with the help of volunteers and friends who hand stitched and dyed the first flags. The GLBT Historical Society also notes that a surviving fragment of one of those original 1978 flags was later rediscovered after being thought lost for more than 40 years.
That origin matters because it shows that the flag started as something personal and communal before it became something political, corporate, or controversial. It was not mass produced by a branding firm. It was not focus grouped by political consultants. It was not created as a government mandate. It was made by people who wanted a visible symbol for a community that had been told too often to stay invisible.
The flag was first displayed at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. Google Arts and Culture, in a feature with the GLBT Historical Society, explains that Baker secured $1,000 in funding from the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day decoration committee and worked with Lynn Segerblom, also known as Faerie Argyle Rainbow, and James McNamara to create the rainbow flags raised above United Nations Plaza in 1978. Another GLBT Historical Society feature on Baker states that the decoration committee allocated $1,000 to create two rainbow flags for the event.
The original design had eight colored stripes, and each color was given a meaning. The Museum of Modern Art’s audio entry on Gilbert Baker’s 1978 Rainbow Flag explains those original meanings. Hot pink represented sex. Red represented life. Orange represented healing. Yellow represented sunlight. Green represented nature. Turquoise represented magic. Blue or indigo represented serenity. Violet represented spirit.
Over time, the flag became the six stripes rainbow most people know today: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. That simplification happened as the flag became easier to produce and distribute widely. The important point is that the flag started as a symbol of visibility, not as a demand that every person accept every political agenda later attached to it.
One important piece of history is that Baker was inspired in part by how flags function in American public life. Google Arts and Culture’s feature on the original Pride flag explains that Baker noticed American flags everywhere during the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial and came to understand how a flag could become more than cloth. Baker understood that a flag could become a public symbol that people recognize instantly.
That history matters because the Pride flag was never originally designed to replace the American flag. It was not supposed to become a weapon against faith, family, free speech, children, women, or common sense. It was created as a public symbol for people who had been told for generations to disappear.
That is the part many critics either forget or never learned. For many gay Americans, the flag was not about arrogance. It was about survival after years of shame, criminalization, rejection, and silence.
The American Flag Still Comes First
For me, the American flag comes first. Always.
The American flag represents our Constitutional Republic. It represents liberty. It represents free speech. It represents the right to assemble. It represents religious freedom. It represents the right to disagree. It represents equal protection under the law. It represents the promise that government should not punish citizens for who they are, what they believe, how they vote, how they worship, or whom they peacefully love.
That is why I reject the idea that the rainbow flag and the American flag must be enemies. They are not supposed to be enemies. At its best, the rainbow flag is not a replacement for the American flag. It is a reminder that gay Americans are included under the promises of the American flag.
That is the difference between American Pride and radical Pride politics.
American Pride says liberty belongs to all citizens. Radical Pride politics says bow to the agenda or be destroyed. American Pride says gay Americans have constitutional rights too. Radical Pride politics says every gay person must accept every activist demand without question. American Pride says we can live openly without surrendering faith, family, patriotism, common sense, or personal responsibility. Radical Pride politics says if you are gay, you must be left wing, woke, anti-Trump, anti-Christian, anti-Republican, and politically obedient.
That is a lie.
Gay Americans do not belong to the Left. Gay conservatives exist. Gay Republicans exist. Gay Christians exist. Gay Trump supporters exist. Gay independents, moderates, libertarians, Constitution lovers, veterans, parents, business owners, workers, and everyday citizens exist. We are not going away just because the Left wants to own us or because parts of the Right do not know what to do with us.
How Pride Got Complicated
There are many Pride flags now. There are Pride flags in other countries. There are local Pride flags. There are movement flags. There are redesigned flags. There are flags meant to represent race, gender identity, trans activism, intersex issues, and other political or social causes. Some of these flags were created because people felt left out of the original rainbow symbol. Others were created as the broader movement changed and absorbed more issues under one umbrella.
The Human Rights Campaign notes that the Philadelphia Pride Flag was unveiled in 2017 after Philadelphia officials wanted to include queer communities of color that had often been overlooked in the broader movement. The black and brown stripes were meant to symbolize communities of color and their contributions.
The Progress Pride Flag came later. The Victoria and Albert Museum identify the Progress Pride Flag as a 2018 design by Daniel Quasar, adding a chevron that incorporated black and brown stripes along with the colors of the trans flag. The Human Rights Campaign also explains that the Progress Pride Flag evolved from the Philadelphia Pride Flag, with the black and brown stripes representing communities of color and the added white, pink, and light blue stripes representing the trans community.
Other versions have been created since then, including versions that include intersex symbolism. The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum notes that the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag was designed in 2021 by Valentino Vecchietti and incorporated the yellow field and purple circle of the intersex flag originally designed by Morgan Carpenter.
Some people love those newer flags. Some people strongly reject them. Some gay men and lesbians feel the original rainbow flag has been overloaded with politics that no longer represent them. That is a fair conversation to have, and it should not be dismissed.
A symbol can start with one purpose and later be turned into something else. Many ordinary Americans believe that is exactly what happened to Pride. What began as protest, remembrance, visibility, and celebration has too often been swallowed by corporate virtue signaling, public indecency, radical gender ideology, forced speech, attacks on women’s spaces, school controversies, and activist demands that many gay people never agreed to support.
That is where much of the frustration comes from. It is not all hatred. It is not all ignorance. A lot of it is exhaustion from watching a movement that once asked for tolerance become associated with coercion. A lot of it is frustration from parents who feel their children are being pulled into adult debates. A lot of it is anger from women who feel their spaces and sports are being dismissed. A lot of it is resentment from gay men and lesbians who fought for basic rights and now feel blamed for every radical demand under the alphabet.
Those concerns should not be dismissed. Parents have every right to reject sexualized content around children. Women have every right to defend women’s sports and private spaces. Lesbians have every right to reject being shamed for their boundaries. Christians have every right to speak their faith. Conservatives have every right to criticize radical activism. Gay people have every right to say, “That does not represent me.”
But none of that should become an excuse to erase gay people, mock every Pride message, attack gay marriage, push gay Americans back into silence, or pretend every gay person is responsible for every activist who grabbed a rainbow flag.
That is the line.
Pride As Dignity Versus Pride as Radical Politics
There is a difference between Pride as dignity and Pride as radical politics.
Pride as dignity says, “I will not live in shame.” Pride as radical politics says, “You must affirm everything I demand.” Pride as dignity says, “Gay Americans have rights.” Pride as radical politics says, “Children must be pulled into adult ideological battles.” Pride as dignity says, “We remember a history of criminalization, job loss, family rejection, violence, and silence.” Pride as radical politics says, “Disagree with us and we will destroy your career.”
Those are not the same thing. They should never be treated as the same thing.
I reject radical politics. I defend dignity.
That is not playing both sides. That is having principles.
I can reject public indecency and still defend gay Americans. I can criticize gender ideology and still oppose homophobia. I can believe children should be protected and still say gay people should not be pushed back into the closet. I can support Trump and still remind the Right that gay conservatives are part of this country too. I can reject the Left’s rainbow industrial complex and still understand why visibility mattered in the first place.
That is not confusion. That is liberty.
Too many people want this debate reduced to a simple binary. Either defend everything under the rainbow or condemn everything attached to it. Either bow to the Left’s agenda or stay silent while the Right erases you. Either accept every activist demand or be accused of self hate. Either reject Pride completely or be accused of supporting every bad thing ever done under the Pride banner.
That is nonsense. Free people do not have to live inside political cages built by other people.
Why Pride Still Matters to Some of Us
There are people who say Pride Month should not exist at all. I disagree.
Nobody is forced to celebrate it. Nobody is forced to attend a parade. Nobody is forced to wave a flag. Nobody is forced to change a profile picture. Nobody is forced to pretend every event is perfect. If someone does not like Pride Month, they are free to ignore it, criticize it, or avoid it.
But saying gay Americans deserve no recognition at all ignores the reason Pride existed in the first place.
There was a time when gay people could be criminalized, fired, disowned, arrested, blackmailed, beaten, institutionalized, publicly humiliated, or forced into silence. In parts of the world, that still happens. Even in America, cultural acceptance did not fall out of the sky. People fought for basic legal recognition, privacy, employment dignity, military service, marriage, and the right to live openly without being treated as less than fully American.
That history does not disappear just because some activists ruined the brand.
And yes, many activists have damaged the brand. They turned too much of Pride into a political purity test. They made it too corporate. They made it too sexualized. They dragged in issues many gay and lesbian people never agreed to carry. They allowed extremists to speak louder than everyday gay Americans who simply want to live their lives.
That is why the answer is not to surrender Pride. The answer is to reclaim it.
Reclaim Pride from the radical Left. Reclaim Pride from corporations. Reclaim Pride from public indecency. Reclaim Pride from people who think children belong in adult ideological fights. Reclaim Pride from the idea that every gay person must vote Democrat. Reclaim Pride from the lie that conservatives cannot be gay. Reclaim Pride from the people who think patriotism and gay identity cannot stand in the same room.
A sane Pride Month should be about history, dignity, equal protection, family friendly community, free speech, faith, personal responsibility, and the Constitution.
That is the Pride worth defending.
That is Unity Pride.
Did The Left Steal Pride and Did the Right Forget Gay Americans Exist?
Go Right with Peter Boykin Perspective
The Left did not create gay people. The Right does not get to erase them.
That should not be complicated, but somehow every June turns into the same exhausting battle. The Left wants to act like Pride belongs exclusively to them. They want to wrap it in corporate logos, activist slogans, school policies, gender ideology, drag queen controversies, and political litmus tests. They want every gay person to line up, clap on command, vote correctly, speak correctly, and pretend every new demand is sacred.
No.
The Right, meanwhile, too often sees the worst examples of modern Pride and uses them as an excuse to attack the whole thing. A wild parade clip from one city becomes proof that every Pride event is obscene. A radical school policy becomes proof that gay people should stop talking. A trans activist demand becomes a weapon against gay men and lesbians who had nothing to do with it.
No again.
Both sides need to hear this clearly. Gay Americans are not political property. Gay Americans are not campaign props. Gay Americans are not responsible for every activist under the alphabet. Gay Americans are also not going back into silence just because some people are uncomfortable with the fact that we exist.
For those of us who are gay and conservative, this fight is even more personal. We get called traitors by the Left. We get called liberals by people on the Right who cannot understand that gay rights and constitutional liberty are not left-wing ideas. We are too gay for some religious hardliners. We are too conservative for the rainbow activists. We are too independent for party loyalists. We are too honest for people who want every issue reduced to a tribal slogan.
But that is exactly why we must speak.
America does not need more forced binaries. America needs more free citizens.
When it comes to left wing or right-wing gay politics, maybe some of us are politically non-binary. Not in the gender sense, but in the political sense. We do not identify as Democrat Pride or Republican silence.
We do not bow to the rainbow industrial complex. We do not accept homophobia dressed up as patriotism. We do not surrender children to activists. We do not surrender gay Americans to erasure. We do not let the Left define us. We do not let the Right dismiss us.
We stand under the American flag first, and we say the Constitution applies to us too.
That is not radical. That is American.
So welcome to Pride Month. Not the version owned by corporations. Not the version hijacked by activists. Not the version mocked by people who never bothered to learn the history. Welcome to a Pride Month rooted in dignity, memory, equal protection, constitutional liberty, and the simple reminder that gay Americans are still Americans.
We can honor the American flag. We can understand the history of the rainbow flag. We can reject radical politics. We can protect children. We can respect families. We can defend women’s spaces. We can oppose forced speech. We can challenge the nonsense. And we can still say that gay citizens deserve dignity, visibility, and equal treatment under the law.
That is not left wing. That is not right wing.
That is Go Right.
#GoRight, #GoRightNews, #PeterBoykin, #PrideMonth, #UnityPrideMonth, #AmericanPride, #GayConservative, #GayRepublican, #GaysForTrump, #ConstitutionalistForLiberty, #FreeSpeech, #EqualProtection, #FaithFamilyFreedom, #AmericaFirst, #LGBTQ, #PrideFlag, #RainbowFlag, #ConstitutionalRepublic, #LibertyForAll
Pride Month does not have to belong to the radical Left or corporate politics. Peter Boykin explains the history of the rainbow Pride flag, why the American flag still comes first, and how gay Americans can defend dignity, constitutional rights, and common sense without surrendering to either side.
Sources:
GLBT Historical Society, Rainbow Flag
GLBT Historical Society, The Art of Gilbert Baker
Museum of Modern Art, Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag 1978
Google Arts and Culture, The Original Pride Flag
Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ Pride Flags
Victoria and Albert Museum, The Progress Pride Flag
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag at the Smithsonian
GLBT Historical Society documents the original eight-stripe rainbow flag, its hand-dyed creation, and the rediscovered surviving fragment. (GLBT Historical Society)
Google Arts and Culture notes Baker’s $1,000 funding from the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day decoration committee and the volunteers who helped create the 1978 flags. (Google Arts & Culture)
The GLBT Historical Society’s Baker feature says Baker conceived the flag in 1978 and that the decoration committee allocated $1,000 for two rainbow flags. (Google Arts & Culture)
MoMA lists the original color meanings. (The Museum of Modern Art) HRC summarizes the Philadelphia and Progress Pride flag developments. (Human Rights Campaign)
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian covers the 2021 Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag by Valentino Vecchietti. (cooperhewitt.org)
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