I HATE THE DESIGN OF THIS PRIDE FLAG (PLEASE READ POST)
(please read in entirety before commenting)
I HATE this particular version of the pride flag, and the ones that add more stripes into the triangle. Now before I say anything more, I have nothing against trans people or any other form of LGBTQ people. But this flag has always pissed me off since it first became popular. The main reason why is because, in my personal opinion. The black, brown, and trans coloured stripes take away from the point of the pride flag, and by that, I mean that the pride flag is already meant to represent any and everyone in the community, the original flag doesn't have any specific sexualities or genders attached, whereas the progress flag feels the need to include the trans flag within the design of the flag, this is a useless addition because they are already included in the original flag because it represents everyone in the community. And yes, I will acknowledge that trans people have been rejected from the LGBTQ community in the past and that is an issue, however that is not strong enough reason the put their flag into the pride flag because no other groups in the community get specifically represented, and I will say this again I do not have anything against trans people. I just think that the flag is out of place and disrupts the original meaning of the flag.
Now the black and brown stripes: In my opinion these stripes do not belong in the flag, not because the people in these groups aren't a part of the LGBTQ community, they are. But instead, because they are already represented in the original flag. As far as I understand, the brown stripe represents BIPOC peoples, and not to sound like a broken record, but they are already included in the original flag because it represents everyone in the community. And once again, and I'm trying not to sound like a broken record, but I do understand that BIPOC people in the have been underrepresented in the community. And the black stripe, I have heard confusion over if it represents black people, or people who suffer from HIV/AIDs. As far as I understand it represents people who suffer from HIV/AIDs, and I will say it is a valiant effort to try to represent the people in the community, who suffer the most severe bodily and social pain, and I will say that they should be remembered. But I know this broken record joke is getting old, but they aren't a specific group inside the community, instead they are a group of people who exist in the community, in different ways. So, as members of the community they are already represented in the original flag. And outside of being members of the community, they are people that we should remember and respect, but respect isn't really something that can be made into a flag.
Concluding thoughts: The original flag represented everybody equally, and that is in part, because it represented nobody in particular. With the newer additions it shows explicit representation of specific groups, which takes away from the wholeness of the original and its purpose to represent people equally. So basically, the flag already represents everyone, so you don't need to represent everyone even more because there already included in the flag. And while it does help call out issues in the community, that isnt really the point of a flag to call out issues, a flag is meant to represent. And, while the flag can be helpful to push more representations of those groups, the issue can be addressed other ways, and once there equally represented their stripes int he flags will be useless in the function of representation. So fully in the end, the original represents everybody, so you don't need to change it to represent more people, if it already represents them.