By now, you’ve seen them—the increasing swirl of flags cropping up like niche app updates. Flags with triangles, chevrons, circles, pixels, polka dots—each a new badge in the grand collector’s quest for micro-recognition. But as freethinkers, shouldn’t we ask: when did inclusion become a jigsaw puzzle of categories?
Let’s rewind.
In 1978, artist Gilbert Baker didn’t create a flag to fragment people into color-coded compartments. He gave us a rainbow—a universal symbol that, quite literally, contains every shade. It wasn’t about segmenting—it was about synthesis. It didn’t ask “Which letter are you?” It shouted, “You’re all here already. Welcome.”
Flag inflation: A well-meaning identity arms race?
Somewhere along the way, the rainbow wasn’t enough. Activists and designers started tweaking it: add a triangle here, a brown stripe there, a circle for intersex inclusion, then arrows pointing left (or was it forward?). Now we’ve got a flag for nearly every letter, intersection, and nuance, as if the original were too… egalitarian?
Don’t get us wrong—recognition matters. But turning inclusion into an ever-expanding flag menu risks the very tribalism we sought to escape. At what point do flags start functioning less like symbols of unity, and more like team jerseys in a league of perpetual identity playoff games.
Categories are comfy, but confining
The paradox? Every time we carve out a new symbol to honor someone’s place, we imply they weren’t in the old one. That’s not inclusion. That’s exclusion with better branding.
The original rainbow didn’t need a footnote or a triangle to tell you you mattered. It assumed it.
It was gloriously defiant in its simplicity:
- No labels.
- No limits.
- Just light, refracted.
A brilliant, natural metaphor for the spectrum of humanity.
The rainbow as rebellion
As freethinkers, we reject mental cages, social orthodoxy, and compulsory labels. So why replicate that same box-building instinct in our symbology?
Let’s embrace the original rainbow again—not because it’s retro, but because it’s radical.
Let the flag stand as a statement against fragmentation, not a bulletin board for subdivided identities. Let it remind us that true diversity doesn’t need constant annotation. You’re already in the rainbow. Always have been.
So next time someone suggests slapping another triangle on the flag, smile gently and say:
“Darling, you don’t need a triangle when you’re already part of the spectrum.”
“We are not what we are because of our labels, but in spite of them.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
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