symbols of Unity: Pride Flags and the Development of LGBTQ+ Identities in London, Berlin, and New York after Stonewall.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In the twenty-first century, pride flags are inseparable from LGBTQ+ communities. The rainbow flag, for example, is best known for its association with those who identify under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. Despite their prominence today, however, finding any reference to pride flags in historical scholarship is a surprisingly challenging task. Given the historical importance of these symbols, this absence in the literature raises important research questions. Originating in the late 1970s for a pride march in San Francisco, the rainbow pride flag has since become a globally recognisable symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. Just how the rainbow pride flag was able to transcend its spatial point of origin remains unanswered. At the heart of this project, then, is the question of how, and why, the rainbow pride flag was able to attain its status as a globally recognisable symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. With a focus on London, Berlin, and New York, this project sets its sights on investigating the queer subcultures within these urban metropolitan spaces their transnational connections. It proposes that within these networks lie the most probable method by which the symbol was able to reach LGBTQ+ identifying communities outside of San Francisco. How these communities then elevated the rainbow pride flag, and subsequent identity-specific pride flags, to their globally recognised status today will be explored by the community's use of these flags at events such as pride marches/festivals. In exploring this otherwise overlooked history, this project aims to rediscover a community's lost history and highlight the origins of the rainbow pride flag's power.