The Progress Flag, created in 2018 by Daniel Quasar is arguably the most popular and controversial iteration of the rainbow pride flag.

The aim of the flag was to emphasise that there is still progress which needs to be made with LGBTQ+ rights, especially within marginalised communities. The chevron pointing right is meant to represent the idea of forward progress and the colours of it represent marginalised communities within the LGBTQ+ community: white, pink and blue from the trans flag, and black and brown inspired by the Philadelphia flag to symbolise BIPOC. The black also represents people who have died from/are living with HIV/AIDS, although this is often forgotten, since the black in the Philadelphia flag did not symbolise it.

I don't like this flag. Even though I believe it was created with good intentions, its execution and use unfortunately do not reflect those intentions. Firstly, it is incredibly ugly; the colour combinations just do not work, and it is ultimately lazy - there are no new concepts presented in this, it just combines ideas from other flags. A key design issue with the chevron, other than the poor design, is that it visually segregates trans people and BIPOC (A few people have attempted to redesign the flag to solve this issue and I will discuss that later). This is problematic, as it implies they were never included in the first place, and completely ignores the intersection between identities (note that the creator is nonbinary, but xe is also white [As am I, so my perspective is likely limited so bear that in mind…] Additionally, highlighting specific identities, although important, automatically excludes others. This is demonstrated by the developed version of this on the next page.

By itself it is not horrible, and the message it coveys is important, but it seems to be treated by many people as a replacement for the plain rainbow, which, in my opinion, is not the correct attitude. Similar to other variations, it has its place, but should not be promoted as better or more correct than any other variations.

Another major issue with this flag is its association with rainbow capitalism, despite Quasar's claims to be entirely against it. For example, it has played a key role in at least one (Quasar only mentions 2021 on xir website) of Target's infamous Pride Collections. Although this widespread use is arguably good, as it shows that the message of inclusion is fairly well accepted and understood, companies such as Target will immediately stop promoting inclusion when it becomes unprofitable or controversial. (Keeping with this example, Target has chosen to remove certain items of their 2023 Pride Collection, because of transphobia and homophobia from customers, both online and in person, many of whom have threatened the company).