![]() When I saw those flags, I felt seen completely, affirmed. Occasionally you would see a Pride flag strung up on a pole, dancing in the wind in front of someone’s house. But in certain neighborhoods, those flags were everywhere, littered in windows, stuck against front doors, and used as bumper stickers to display someone’s Pride. As a queer teenager, I didn’t feel safe in much of Cleveland. I remember how important the little three-by-five rainbow flag stickers were to me every time I saw them in the window of a Starbucks or a bagel shop in Lakewood, Ohio, or one of the vintage shops on Coventry Road. For years, the flag has served as an iconic reminder of the existence of LGBTQ+ folx of all stripes, our resilience, and even merely a symbol that someplace-a coffee shop, a bookstore, a bar, or a school-was a safe haven, an affirming space. In fact, the different colors were chosen to reflect the different colors found in nature-much like the divergent identities that make up our community. The flag was embraced as an embodiment of the diversity among the LGBTQ+ community. In 1978, Gilbert Baker, an artist, created something of an icon: he designed a striped flag made in the colors of the rainbow for a people who needed a symbol of unity.
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