This is my proposal for a Disability Pride Flag

[capri0mni]

[Image description: A black flag diagonally crossed from the top of the hoist to the bottom of the fly by a four-color "Lightning bolt" in stripes of blue, gold, green and red (three long sections running from hoist to fly, alternating with two short sections from fly to hoist), Description ends]

My “Artist’s Statement” about this Flag:

1) The black field:

Black has three significant meanings:

First: the color of mourning for all those disabled people who have been murdered in the name of “mercy.”

Second: the color of the pirates’ “Jolly Roger” flag, representing our determination to steal our lives back from those public (and private) ‘authorities,’ who use their power in an attempt keep us marginalized.

Third: A reference to the Nazi Black Triangle badge, which was used to identify those whom the Nazis considered “antisocial“ and which has been adopted in Britain to protest the government’s austerity measures against the Disabled.

2) The “Lightning Bolt” motif:

Diagonal lines have been traditionally used in the flags of former colonies, to represent breaking free from colonial powers (empire nations tend to have flags dominated by horizontal and vertical lines). And Disabled people’s lives have long been ‘colonized’ by the medical, religious, and educational establishments.

The zigzag shape represents how the Disabled people must continually navigate around the structural and attitudinal barriers erected throughout normate society, and also the creative, ‘lateral,’ thinking we have to use to solve problems each day.

3) The individual colors represent broad categories of disabilities:

Blue: mental illness disabilities

Yellow: Cognitive and intellectual disabilities

Green: Sensory perception disabilities

Red: Physical disabilities

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So -- would you fly this flag? I really am curious.

Comments

[sqbr]

And Disabled people’s lives have long been ‘colonized’ by the medical, religious, and educational establishments.

This feels really appropriative.

Everything else seems ok. I don't really do flags, though, so am not the best person to judge. Closest I come is rainbow-ing it up a bit for some queer events.

[alatefeline]

Yes. Yes I would, although I'm not certain I have the right to do so (I don't knows if I can call myself disabled if I've been stealth about my autism at every job I've ever had and still managed to work full time). But your explanations really spoke to me.

[maramcreates]

Yes, I would wave this flag far and wide.

As far as I can tell, you've managed to address all of the issues that folks brought up the last time you talked about creating such a flag. Thank you :D!

LIKE!

[callibr8]

Saw this, immediately started trying to translate to heraldic blazon in my head, something like, "four conjoined lightning bolts, sinister: azure, or, vert, rouge; on a field sable" ... or something like that.

I like the simplicity and the symbolism, well enough to ignore the fact that it violates the "no color-on-color" rule of medieval heraldry, and for me that's quite a concession.

Another thing to like about the simplicity is that it would be easy to do up as embroidery or applique. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi there, came over from the Rolling Around in My Head blog. I like a lot of things about this design, the black background, the zigzag, the simplicity... but I have one problem. I wish there were an additional line for chronic illness. Now, I realize that chronic illness can often be counted under either physical disability or mental illness, but I know that a lot of chronically ill people don't even feel addressed when someone just says "disability" (the services for disabled students here are called "services for disabled and chronically ill students" because otherwise many chronically ill students won't use them). Now, I'm chronically ill and I definitely feel addressed when people say disabled, but it's taken me a long time to reach that point, and when you say "physical disability" I just don't think of chronic illness. So even though I know I'm meant to be included in this flag design, I just don't feel included.