I updated my "Disability Pride" Flag

[capri0mni]

This is the original one, I came up with last year:


A black field crossed, from the top of the hoist to the bottom of the fly, by a "zigzag" band alternating between three long sections and two short sections.

This band is divided longitudinally into four colors (reading from left to right): Azure, Gold, Green, and Red.

The symbolism:

1) The black field:

• Is the color of mourning (in the Western world), for all the victims of “mercy killing”.
  
• Is the color of the “Black Triangle” badge the Nazis used to mark prisoners of concentration camps who were unable to work; these people were killed first. It’s now also the symbol of protest for the U.K.’s Disability Rights movement
  
• Is the color of the pirates’ “Jolly Roger” flag

2) The Lightning Bolt/Zigzag

• Represents how Disabled people have to navigate around barriers.
  
• Represents breaking free from Normate Authority dictating our lives, and controlling our bodies

3) The colors:

• Azure: Mental Illness (Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Psychosis, etc. -- "the Blues")
  
• Gold: Neurodivergence (Autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD, etc. -- Gold = "Au.")
  
• Green: Sensory Disability (D/deaf, Blind, etc.)
  
• Red: Physical Disability (Mobility Impairment, Disfigurement, Pain/Fatigue, etc. -- Red = Traditional color for bodily things)
  
• Purple: Invisible Disability, Undiagnosed Disability

A while after I posted it I posted it to Tumblr, someone asked that I put a fifth stripe in, to represent invisible illnesses (which I had folded in with both mental illness and physical disability, but she pointed out that people with invisible disabilities are often made to feel that they don't count, or are "faking," and being specifically acknowledged would help break that stigma, and as she is someone with an invisible disability, I took her word for it.

Well, yesterday, I was in the mood to work on something visual, so decided to take a bit of time to tweak this... Half a day later, I got this:


A black flag diagonally crossed from the top of the hoist (flagpole side) to the bottom of the fly (flappy end) by a five parallel “Lightning bolts” (three long sections running from hoist to fly, alternating with two short sections from fly to hoist) in stripes of light blue, gold, green, red, and purple, with narrow borders of black between them.

And, because I forgot to write this down the first time, and had to figure out how to do it again from scratch:

1. Tracing lightly: Divide the height into thirds.
   
2. Divide the length in fourths.
   
3. Trace a diagonal line from the top left corner to the intersection of the first horizontal line and the middle vertical line.
   
4. Trace a matching diagonal line up from the bottom corner to the intersection of the second horizontal line and the middle vertical line.
   
5. Center a third line between them, in the middle third of the flag.
   
6. Trace a line of the same angle from the bottom of the first diagonal line until it intersects the second diagonal line; erase the portion of the middle diagonal to the left of this point.
   
7. Repeat to create the connection between the second diagonal line and the third; erase the portion of the final diagonal to the left of this point (this will be the top edge of the green stripe, and the line with which all others will be parallel).
   
8. Each colored band is 1/10 as wide as the overall flag is long, and the width of each border is ~ 1/3 of that (so if the flag is 5′ long, each colored stripe would be ~ 6″ wide, and the border between each stripe would be ~ 2″)

Comments

[pebblerocker]

The black in between the coloured stripes really makes it pop! And the new colour looks good, the colours look bolder with the purple on the end. I like it!

[capri0mni]

Thank you!

Yeah, "Make your flag high contrast -- put dark colors next to light ones" is one of the five principles of good flag design for a reason.

And frankly, I was worried that if I added more bright colors, I'd lose the balance with the black and -- as that represents the grief and anger of the Disability Community in response to abuse -- that was important.

[jesse_the_k]

This is lovely -- I want to start spreading the word. Thinking about a t-shirt?

[capri0mni]

Yes, actually... on one of those all-over-print shirts, I'm imagining an all black shirt with just these stripes -- no words, running vertically from the neckline to the hem.
Also, buttons, trucker hats, coffee mugs...

(That reminds me, I should probably put a link to my zazzle store in my Tumblr profile).

Also, in working out the instructions for the design, I decided to focus on the proportions of the stripes within the field (halves, thirds, quarters, etc.), rather than the specific size of the field itself (this specific example is 3 units by 5), so that people who want to take this flag and wave it at a protest or march (yes, please), can recreate it (relatively) easily on whatever size of black poster board or fabric they have at hand.

And with multi-colored duct tape now on the market, that might be even easier. (gotta love multi-colored duct tape!)

My hope is (especially since it's hard for me to get out in public (public transportation is a joke, around here, and there are no large gathering places like a public square, other than the insides of malls), that if people like this flag, they'll make their own version and wear it in public, in their public squares.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

If you add a stripe, you've made the invisible visible, which seems kind of counterproductive. I keep wanting to read the black interstitial stripes as the invisible part.

Re: Well ...

[capri0mni]

If you add a stripe, you've made the invisible visible

Indeed. That's the point.

The person who asked me to add the fifth stripe (and who thanked me, afterward) actually has an invisible illness, and their suffering is compounded by the social stigma of not being believed.

Besides, the emblem on this flag is meant to represent the diversity of the Disability experience, and according to this site, about half of all people with a disability have an invisible one (10% of Americans; according to the latest Census about 20% of Americans are disabled).

Also -- this stripe not only represents invisible disabilities, but also undiagnosed ones. Just because doctors haven't attached a name to your disability yet doesn't mean that your symptoms don't limit your life (for women, and people socially coded as women, it can take an average of five years to finally get a diagnosis). But when you are disabled, if you can't name a diagnosis when people demand one of you, then you are shamed.

And people who are shamed need to be included in a pride flag, don't you think?