The first June in our first house, I put out a Pride flag on the already installed flagpole mount. This was in a blue dot in a red state, in 2016 ish, at the incipient rise of modern Rainbow Capitalism. I had been pretty solid on the pan-ace thing for awhile but non-binary was still brewing. It was important to me to make a visible mark, and I was in a safe environment to do so.
When July came that year, I just didn’t take the flag down. It wasn’t a specific choice. I’m just a little bit lazy. Then it just kind of…stayed up. And I’ve kept some kind of Pride flag up all year long ever since. They tend to get torn up on the edge of my roof or by the weather, so I do go through a couple a year.
My mom asked me once why I had it up still because “Pride month is over.” I told her, “My friends and I don’t just stop being gay when the month is over.”
And I stand by that.
Now we live in a red county, and I’m even more inclined to make sure that Pride flag stays up. One Halloween, a teen from the neighborhood actively told me how much they like seeing my flag from the bus as it passes on the way to their stop.
There’s massive power in this very simple symbolism. My comic shop has a progress pride flag sticker on the door, and that tells me it’s a safe place for me to exist as I am. I can order gay comics through them without worrying they’re gonna be weird about it. And we all know the symbology on the other side of that. The kind of symbols that explicitly tell you that if you don’t fit a specific mold, you’re not welcome. And this ranges in complexity and level of nefariousness.
This comes with some contextual hooks, as well. A homophobe finds my symbol of liberation, a Pride flag, some kind of threat. Can’t really help them with that if they’re gonna be that way.
But there’s a genre of personal iconography that presents a different level of complexity, and that’s when you stick a Bible verse on your car in white vinyl. A cross. An ichthys. That weird one that looks like runes that means “God is greater than the highs and lows.” I see that, and I’m now immediately on edge, and it’s not really your fault. Hopefully.
Now for me, specifically, this began a long time ago. I grew up Southern Baptist Convention as thrice a week churchgoers. I found, growing up, that the people who worked the hardest to visually display their Christianity were often the people who had the hardest time actually espousing the teachings of Christ at an existential level. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. First take the log out of your own eye. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. All that good shit.
I think we’ve all been there at this point. You walk into someone’s house, they have a wall full of crosses, and you’re about fifty-fifty on what exactly you’re about to get. What kind of Christian are you looking at? This isn’t a new phenomenon. We’ve all seen clips of that woman from Trading Spouses. I’ve known women like that in real life. Christians have always shown major disparities in the way they approach the religion and — more often than any of us would like — that can involve violence.
It’s just getting worse with the rise of Christian nationalism.
I see a Jesus fish on your car, and I, as a queer person, don’t know if I’m safe with you. I don’t think you’re going to beat me down in the parking lot, but would you protect the wellbeing and safety of my trans friends and colleagues? Do you spend your short time on Earth worrying that The Gays are going to get you, somehow? Even if you think I’m a sinner doomed to hell, would you stand up for me in a time of need? There’s a church locally to me with very specific branding. If I see that logo, I know that of all the churches available to you, you’ve picked one of the blatantly homophobic ones.
And I want to assume that most Christians don’t realize the double-edged sword their modern religious iconography has created. I certainly would not want other people out there worried I might hate crime them based on a shirt or a car decal. You’ve put this symbol of Christ on your car, who’s a cool dude, with the expectation that people will know you carry love on your heart, but other Christians have ruined that for you.
What are you going to do about it?
Because now, more than ever, we need to know what team everyone’s on.
Pixels and Pins Studio 