The Confederate Flag Represents A Heritage Of Hate

Been keeping up with the terrorist attack in Charleston, SC that led to the deaths of nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

It has been interesting to see how fast the conservafool media has been quick to revoke his white male card and try to disassociate themselves from the fact he was one of theirs, weaned on FOX Noise and other anti-Black hate speech.

First they tried to avoid even calling it a terrorist attack, but had to drop that attempted talking point when his anti-Black manifesto came out.  

Then it was the conservafool media trying to paint Roof as a `lone wolf`, `disturbed`,`mentally ill`, et cetera.

Nope, he`s a ` Real American` and all yours.  Deal with the consequences of pushing nonstop anti-Black hatred for fun and political advantage combined with lax gun laws leading to dead Black people.

Now that it has also resulted in renewed attention on the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate that needed to die 150 years ago, we hear the whining coming from groups like like the Sons of Confederate Veterans trying to pimp that `Heritage Not Hate` BS.

Don't even try it.  The Confederate flag not only represented a group of traitorous states that fomented an armed rebellion against the US government, they did so for the sole purpose of keeping my people perpetually enslaved.

You are still bitter you lost 'The War To Perpetuate Slavery`and have been taking your Civil War defeat out on Black people ever since.

And when my people began to march against unjust Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s, you unfurled that flag across the South as a big middle finger to us and the country.  You rallied around that racist flag in order to don pointed white hoods and conduct terrorist attacks aimed at Black people an intimidate righteous white people into silence.

That flag has a 150 year heritage of hate, and it is past time that it be consigned to the dustbin of history.  It is also past time we tell the truth about that flag being anything but honorable.

Media Peeps, The Trans Community Has A Flag- Please Use It!

Today is Flag Day, which celebrates the day the American flag was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

I've written some posts that have implored the TBLG community to ensure that when we have human rights events and protests, we include Old Glory in them along with our group flag to send the message that we are citizens of this country that deserve to have our human rights respected and protected.

The trans community since August 16, 1999 has had the pink, blue and white flag representing our community .   It was created by Monica Helms and first flew in the 2000 Phoenix pride parade.  The original Helms trans pride flag is now housed at the Smithsonian and ever since its creation has slowly grow to become an internationally recognized symbol for our community and international human rights movement.

While we recognize the LGBT rainbow flag, and we trans peeps have no problem when we are working intersectionally or in community with our GLB allies flying, marching under or displaying the Baker flag, it is irritating when we have a trans themed event to have the Baker flag and not have the trans pride flag prominently displayed.

Monica Helms noted the same thing in a February 25 comment on her Facebook page.

I have seen several web-based media groups writing about the multitude of situations where trans people are murdered, states voting on anti trans bills or the new Secretary of Defense saying that trans people should serve in the military. Invariably, the writers of the articles, or their editors select the first picture that comes to mind, a picture of a rainbow flag.

Excuse me! We may be part of the LGBT group, but we have our own flag and our own colors that represent us specifically. The Transgender Pride Flag has been around for 15 years and there are thousands of photos and drawings that have our colors or our flag. The original flag is even in the Smithsonian. If you are trying to show us some respect by pointing out the hatred others have towards trans people, then why not show us some respect in the photos you select for the article? Is that too much to ask?

It also irritating to see an article that is primarily about a trans person or a trans issue have a graphic that superimposes the rainbow flag and not the trans pride one.

I'm going to repeat the same question Ms. Helms asked.   If you are trying to show us some respect by pointing out the hatred others have towards trans people, then why not show us some respect in the photos you select for the article and include our flag in them?

The trans community has its own flag media peeps.  Please use it in articles or graphics that you create pertaining to my community.

Flag Day 2014

We are also aware through a perusal of history that any marginalized group fighting for their human rights is usually demonized at some point as un-American by the Forces of Intolerance.   The easiest way to counter the lie and take away one of their spin lines is to proudly fly Old Glory at any protest or community event we hold.
--TransGriot, June 14, 2011 

It's apropos that I'm in Philadelphia at the largest trans conference in the United States at a tipping point moment for our trans human rights movement. 

One of the arguments I've been making for years is for the trans community to not repeat the mistake the GL community repeatedly does of ignoring our national flag at their events and ceding its use to our loud and wrong opponents.

This flag is ours just as much as the blue, pink and white Helms one that represents our community, so use it at our events, gatherings, parades  and human rights fights

Remember we have trans people serving and fighting in our military aroubnd the world to protect our precious right to fly it, so honor their service by doing so.          

Trans Pride Flag History

One of my Facebook friends asked the question in one of our discussions, "Who came up with the design for the trans pride flag?"   She was referring to the pink, blue and white striped flag that has come into widespread adoption and usage by many trans communities around the world as a symbol of our community

Since it has been almost 15 years since its creation, and I know the person who created it, I thought this would be a great time for a history lesson on the trans pride flag.

That's your cue to have a seat, because TransGriot history class is now in session.   

The transgender pride flag was created in August 1999 by Monica Helms and has five horizontal stripes.  Two stripes are blue ones, two stripes are pink ones and a white center stripe.  

As for their meaning, Helms described it this way in an interview:  "The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are intersex, transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender. The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives"

The Helms trans pride flag was first publicly unfurled at a Phoenix, AZ pride parade in 2000.   It is not only the original flag, it is the one that is in widespread usage around the planet. 

When Equality House in Topeka, KS was painted in honor of TDOR last year, it was done in the colors of the Helms trans pride flag

A large version of it was recently unfurled and flown last year for the first time on the large public flagpole in San Francisco's Castro District for Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 19-20.

Trans pride flag variants have popped up in Ontario and in Israel, but the Helms trans pride flag was the first and is increasingly becoming the most widely used one around the world.

Trans Community, Don't Repeat The GL Community Mistake About The US Flag

Flag Day commemorates the day in 1777 the Second Continental Congress adopted the flag of the United States.   But it didn't take on its current iconic meaning as a symbol of the United States until December 1860.

The events leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter by the Confederate traitors in April 1861 caused a surge of patriotic fervor for it combined with new mass production techniques making it easily available and established it as a symbol for a unified nation that eventually tens of thousands of men shed blood for over the next four years of that conflict and subsequently thereafter.  .

President Woodrow Wilson issued a 1916 proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day and that was followed up in August 1949 by the establishment of National Flag Day by an Act of Congress. 

The transgender pride flag was conceived by Monica Helms when she lived in Phoenix, AZ and was first flown at a pride parade in that city in 2000.

The flag that represents the trans community consists of five horizontal stripes.  Two light blue ones, two pink ones and a white stripe in the center.

Ms Helms describes the meaning of the flag as "The light blue is the traditional color for baby boys, pink is for girls, and the white in the middle is for those who are transitioning, those who feel they have a neutral gender or no gender, and those who are intersexed.

As Sea Monica stated while explaining the thinking and symbolism behind it, "The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it will always be correct. This symbolizes us trying to find correctness in our own lives."
 
So why am I giving you an encapsulated history of US Flag Day and the creation and symbolic meaning of the trans pride one?  Well, not only because y'all needed to know that history, but there's a larger point I'm segueing into. 

I've talked about one of the recurring mistakes of the GL movement being a deceptively simple one in the fact that they fail to fly the American flag at any protest or event in the GL community.

The American flag is seen as an iconic symbol of our country.   We are fighting oppressors willing to lie, obfuscate and demonize us by any means necessary in order to deny us our constitutionally guaranteed civil and human rights.

We are also aware through a perusal of history that any marginalized group fighting for their human rights is usually demonized at some point as un-American by the Forces of Intolerance.   The easiest way to counter the lie and take away one of their spin lines is to proudly fly Old Glory at any protest or community event we hold.

Since that message seems to be slow to take hold in the GL community, let me chat with my transpeeps for a minute.

As we've recently seen with the addition of more states and jurisdictions adding trans rights laws, momentum is building in our direction toward our inevitable victory on the civil rights front.   Our cause is just, we have the moral high ground and we need to unflinchingly use it.

We also need to make it clear while we are not only proud transpeople, but proud Americans as well.   What better way to send that message is that as we march in TBLG or trans pride parades, having a 2-1 ratio of American flags to trans pride ones?   Having American flags prominently displayed at our signature trans conventions like the IFGE and the Southern Comfort Conference?   If we have press conferences an American flag is displayed if you have a trans one present?

No marginalized group throughout American history attempting to gain human rights coverage inside United States territory has done so without displaying the US flag, and the GL ones stubborn adherence to flying the rainbow flag only at big protest events so far has borne that out as well. 

So trans community, time to work smarter, not harder.   Next time we have those press conferences or when we have community event we're planning, make sure Old Glory is in the room or on site to remind others and ourselves that we are Americans deserving of the same constitutional rights that others continually take for granted.     

GLBT Peeps, If You Want Your Rights, Fly This Flag

The gay community has gone through post mortem after post mortem in terms of dissecting why the Prop 8 fight in Cal-ee-forn-ia was lost last year. But I doubt anyone thought about one simple change that will help immeasurably in this struggle.

Flying the American flag.

Since today is Flag Day, starting like yesterday, the TBLG community should make sure Old Glory is front and center at every protest, every march, and the backdrop at every press conference that's held from now until the next electoral showdown in 2010 and beyond.

One factor as to why the GLBT community continues to lose is that it hasn't forcefully made the unassailable case that we are AMERICANS who deserve and are demanding our constitutional rights.

And how do we do that? The easiest way to prove that we are is by flying the flag.

By continuing to fly only the rainbow flag we make it ridiculously easy for the right-wing Christohaters to paint us as un-American.

Making sure that American flags are front and center and prominently displayed is a major lesson of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

The immigration movement made the same mistake early on, but after getting savaged by conservative haters about the lack of American flags quickly picked up on that error and swiftly corrected it.

An immigration protest now doesn't happen without American flags being prominently displayed and dispersed amongst the marchers and I fail to understand why the GLBT movement continues to make this fundamental mistake.

Yeah, I've heard the philosophical reasoning that some of you sent my way when I wrote about this topic last year. I know some of you have issues with the American flag. But if you want your rights, better get over those issues with the quickness and bury them

It's time to realize that only flying the rainbow flag not only isn't going to cut it, it's past time to try old school tactics for the new millennium.

Face the facts that no American civil rights movement agitating for the constitutional rights of a minority group has been successful or done so without consistently flying and prominently displaying the American flag at its myriad events.

And gay people aren't any different as far as the powers that be are concerned. We are seen as the 'other' unworthy of rights. Mike Huckabee's November 2008 comments on The View that 'the gay community hasn't suffered enough' for their rights should have clued y'all in to that jacked up line of conservathinking.

So it is incumbent upon the GLBT community to prove the haters wrong and establish we are red-blooded Americans.

What the Stars and Stripes represents at its fundamental level is our country. It is not a bought and paid for symbol of the Republican Party or the conservative movement, who by the way NEVER fail to fly it at their events.

Failing to fly it makes the rights case a non starter with persuadable people who do believe in mom, apple pie, fairness, the American Dream and tear up when they hear the Star Spangled Banner.

And if you won't do it for yourselves, do it for the TBLG veterans who served and the GLBT service members who died defending it on foreign soil so you can use it.


Crossposted to The Bilerico Project