The Progress Pride and "Trans" Flags

Are these flags appropriate and progressive, or the opposite?

Photo by Tong Su on Unsplash

The “trans” iteration of the pride flag and various other versions seem to be replacing the original rainbow flag. A Google search says the progress pride flag represents the “marginalized LGBTQ+ community.” Perhaps the flag flyers have good intentions and are not aware that the revised flag might be divisive rather than unifying, and exclusive rather than inclusive, no matter how many new colored stripes and symbols are added. Maybe those who fly these flags do not intend to be disrespectful, yet displaying these flags seems to be about making an ideological or political statement, and many find that message offensive.

These flags are popping up around the world on government buildings, storefronts, restaurants, personal homes, and other locations.

Some people may consider the display as a form of virtue signaling and a symbol to represent one’s “tribe.” Others see the flags as an indication of ideological capture. However, many citizens and patrons find these flags regressive, not progressive, and would prefer that government offices, public spaces, and businesses fly city, state, provincial, or country flags that unify people by celebrating the location where they live. Yet, in each space, someone decided it was appropriate to fly the pride or trans flag, which increasingly represents controversy and harm in many dimensions.

In case you are outside of this charged ideological arena, here are a few details to understand. The LGB community was hijacked by the TQ+ folks and the rest of the ever-growing alphabet of add-ons, which linked itself, without permission or consent, to the LGB movement and its hard-won rights. “Trans” is not the new gay. Who one is attracted to is different from the multitude of identities to which one can self-identify and the feelings a person has about one’s body.

Kids are declaring new identities after being influenced by social media and internet content. A young person is a target if they feel angst, distress, confusion, or don’t fit in, and they are vulnerable to love bombing and promises of a better life if they take steps to alter or fix their “wrong” bodies. “Trans” and “Q+” seem to want the limelight now, and these gender identities have an aggressive activist agenda. Many in the LGB community would like to unlink from the TQ+ because gay kids are being “transed” with sex-trait-modification drugs and procedures, and if those kids had been left alone, they likely would have grown up to be healthy gay and lesbian adults.

If this information is new to you, I recommend reading up on the site and Substack of LGB Courage Coalition.

You may also enjoy reading the article “The Big Gay Divorce: Gays and Lesbians Are Separating Themselves from the TQ+.”

The Big Gay Divorce: Gays and Lesbians Are Separating Themselves From The TQ+

Medicalizing children, teens, and vulnerable adults with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to remove healthy body parts and healthy reproductive organs is a massive medical scandal. Blaming the body for complex issues and ignoring underlying comorbidities is encouraged and celebrated in the current edict issued by “trans” activists, with no questions or discussion allowed. Common sense, critical thinking, and independent thought are discouraged in the name of social justice or a new civil rights focus gone too far. So, the new “trans” and progress pride flags also represent the irreversible harm to the bodies and health of our youngest and most vulnerable kids and adults, and that is not cool or a symbol of virtue.

Many parents have been emotionally blackmailed, belittled, undermined, bullied, threatened, and canceled by medical professionals or zealous “trans” activists and those participating in the profit-driven gender industry. The flag disrespects parents who wish to protect their child’s natural development and body from radical and experimental medical interventions. Of course, some parents fly the flag if they participated in the “trans” medicalization of their child. They might have been bamboozled, misled, and misinformed in the past, or they might consider themselves “progressive” for their involvement in “trans” or their support of an ideology that changes their child’s appearance to resemble the opposite sex.

As the veil is lifted on the massive medical scandal of “gender care,” which engages in extreme body modification, it is increasingly out of touch for businesses and government offices, in particular, to flaunt these flags that represent harm to so many kids.

Everyone deserves compassion and care, but “affirmation-only care” is not comprehensive or ethical, and it violates the oath of “First, do no harm.” Instead of holistic care, drastic cosmetic interventions and genital surgeries are performed as soon as possible after a person declares their subjective sense of self as the opposite sex. People are increasingly recognizing that these radical measures should be considered an absolute last resort rather than a rushed first option. Once you see the self-harm being affirmed in the name of “gender medicine,” you cannot unsee it.

The “trans” and progress pride flags are also disrespectful to girls and women and their rights to have separate spaces to gather and compete in sports. Most people do not want to see any boys and men competing in girls’ and women’s sports. And for a man to claim that he can self-ID as a woman to gain entry into any space where women gather is highly offensive to most women, who don’t believe men can opt-in to womanhood.

“Trans” activists have done substantial damage to the Democratic party, which seems paralyzed and unable to root out this destructive force that overtook the sensibilities of liberal minds. Instead, activists lobby legislators to continue voting on measures to keep boys and men competing in girls’ and women’s sports. Activists distort language to confuse everyone about what a woman is. They love to hijack people’s empathy and their desire to be considered as kind, but they simultaneously shame and use labels such as “bigot” or “transphobe” for any group or individual who disagrees with their agenda and “groupthink.” Then, they convince journalists to use the words “hate” and “anti” to describe protective measures and safeguards for minors or fairness in sports. “Anti-trans,” “hate bills,” and “hate laws” are word choices by biased media that flip the reality upside down, which can be seen by anyone who looks deeper into the matter. Sprinkling in the words “genocide” and “erasure” of trans people are also falsely used to alarm the public. These deceptive word choices may fool some, but they don’t fool everyone.

“Trans” or progress pride flags are now hanging on the walls of many schools. Activists also attempt to shape the minds of children to their own making before the children can understand or consent to the ramifications of the activists’ agenda. Instead of leaving the kids alone to grow up with healthy, intact bodies and the ability to think critically and hone resilience to navigate the body’s natural changes and development, along with life challenges, the “trans” agenda for education undermines the kids and their futures, and also their parents. It’s a grave misuse of our public educational space when school leaders comply with activists’ work to confuse kids and teach little boys and girls that they can be born in the wrong body and that they can change their sex. Simultaneously, they suggest that parents are uneducated, toxic, and abusive if they don’t go along with the queering agenda and instead continue trying to tether their child to truth and reality.

Teachers and counselors have socially “transitioned” students and have suggested that educators know what is best for the child. Keeping secrets from parents and overriding the rights of parents to protect their children is an abhorrent school policy and focus. Activists who silence and bully teachers who don’t agree with these grooming tactics are acting inappropriately and deserve investigation and exposure.

Some people also use these flags as a colorful “middle finger” message. As a result, a backlash is cropping up with people yanking down flags or ripping them up, which can happen when someone gives a symbolic middle finger. But those who fly the flag likely haven’t seen or aren’t aware of the ravishes of the ideology they tout. Perhaps we can give those who are dazzled by the idea that they are part of a new, “progressive” movement a chance to catch up to learn that it is actually a regressive movement. Patience is wearing thin, though, and I worry about the risks of continuing to provoke people in this way.

The bottom line is that many of us, including concerned parents and family members, have been poorly treated by “trans” activists and have seen firsthand the harm that the movement has caused. Seeing the progress flags waving, which represents a regressive ideology and harmful medicalization of our youth, is nauseating, provokes negative emotions, and repels us from supporting the establishment that displays the flag.

The original rainbow flag may have been created with good intentions, but the “trans” and progress pride flags have tarnished that. The new variations of the rainbow flag are tied to a movement built on falsehoods. Some would say the movement had dark and destructive intentions from the beginning. No matter how it started, the “trans” and progress pride flags are no longer appropriate for more reasons than I could write about in one essay. They are actually red flags. They signal that those who fly them are supporting an agenda that harms kids, families, women’s rights, gay rights, students in schools, and fairness in sports, and the list goes on and on.

There is a rapidly expiring grace period for understanding the ramifications of gender ideology and medicalization. Flying flags connected to this controversy may cause more harm than help and does not seem to be a good idea anymore. Let’s help the flag flyers discover what is really happening. They could start by talking with and learning from the ever-growing detransitioner group or regretters who went too far down the medicalization pathway to reverse direction. These groups of individuals have a wealth of experience and knowledge about what happened to them in the name of “trans.”

Many people of both political parties and independent voters like me would like to see businesses be free of tribal markers and political and ideological virtue signaling with flags. Consider shifting the focus to the merits of the products, services, food, and so forth. Many parents would also like schools to cease their ideological indoctrination of children. Consider instruction in reading, writing, math, science, and all the basics without infusing the curriculum with a “queer” agenda, misleading language, and gender confusion.

Consumers are choosing to do business with those who work and teach without pushing an ideology or political stance onto patrons, who would like to receive a service, shop, eat, learn, and enjoy politically neutral spaces. Social justice causes will always have fodder in this world, but radical activists overstepped themselves in the name of gender identities and ideology, and many of us are concerned that they don’t understand why a reckoning is happening.

I suspect that in the years ahead, the “trans” and progress pride iteration flags will join other flags that may have started with good intentions and then went very wrong. One has a right to have and display these flags if they live in a free country, but it might not serve individuals or society well in the long run if the practice continues. It is time to take down the flags that polarize people, have negative connotations, and represent harm.

The LGB community wants its autonomy and its flag back, too, although at this point, it is hard to say if they can get either back. So for now, consider removing tribal markers, virtue signaling, and ideological flags from the exterior of buildings and public spaces and instead fly regional or locational flags that unite us all. Tribalism and political division are causing fractures in friendships and families, and many would love to see more people focus on what we have in common.

Lisa Shultz advocates for parents’ and women’s rights. She is deeply concerned about the influence of gender identity ideology and the lack of comprehensive, ethical care for children and vulnerable adults.