Why a Homophobe Displays a Rainbow Flag

They’re lying to themselves and others

Daniel Quasar’s Progress Pride Flag, 2018 (Source: Northwestern University)

Recently I was intrigued (in an unpleasant way) by an anti-LGBTQ social media account that alternately endorses and opposes the rainbow flag symbol. The person behind the account is real and known to me, and they are acting as an anonymous online troll.

Why would someone do this? Endorse, oppose, endorse, oppose?

A few ideas:

1. If they’re claiming political nostalgia for the “old” or “traditional” rainbow flag against the alternative of the 2018 Progress Pride Flag (which has other colors in a triangle), it may be because they seize any opportunity to say “things used to be simpler” — even if they’re being disingenuous. They know they weren’t happy about gay or queer liberation back in the day, and they know they still don’t support it. They’re negotiating with centrists to agree to turn the clock back just a little bit. Then they’ll want to turn it back a little bit more. And a little bit more.
2. Ideologically, they have a false narrative that trans/queer people sprang into existence in the last decade or so. When they’re on that horse, and when they’re confronted with an undeniably 20th-century symbol like the rainbow flag, they may try to claim that the rainbow flag represents more “traditional” gay and lesbian…