Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Although Towson University administrators denied efforts by student advocates to fly a Pride flag for all to see during the spring academic semester, at least one junior still counts victories.
Philip Taylor points to the brief period the iconic Pride flag adorned ‘Freedom Square,’ a place where students freely write what they want on large chalkboards that greet passersby in the middle of campus. The flag also played a dominant role during the first-ever Pride Fest, which attracted Towson’s president and a few other administrators to the celebrations.
The victory was extra sweet because the flag Taylor is promoting differs from the original Pride flag created by Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978 to represent the gay, bisexual and transgender community. For 40 years, the original flag has been a symbol of activism. Baker died recently at the age of 65.
The flag Taylor and other activists support adds two new colors – black and brown – to the original Pride flag. As originally constructed, the flag strategically line up seven horizontal bars each representing a color of the rainbow. The altered flag with the black and brown stripes represent people of color in the LGBTQ community, Taylor said.
“Historically in the LGBTQ community, African American people, people of color, have always been underrepresented,” said Taylor, who has many friends in the LGBTQ community.
Campus activists support the altered flag as a way to make all members of the LGBTQ community feel accepted and represented at their university.
About 100 miles away, Philadelphia city officials last year hoisted the altered Pride flag on a flagpole in front of City Hall during the month of June. The Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs created the altered flag during its “More Color More Pride” campaign. The decision has stirred some controversy.
Taylor disagreed.
“I have a lot of conflict with that … it’s a symbol of liberation,” Taylor said, “it’s a symbol of unity and adding two colors to include more people, I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
The request to university administrators did not mention the flag with the black and brown stripes.
“It was denied by Towson Administration, reason being if we put a gay flag up on campus, who’s to say a student won’t request a Confederate flag to be put up,” said Danvic Celebrado-Royer, the SGA director of Student Organizations.
Towson isn’t the only university where student groups are pushing for a Pride flag to be flown on its public flagpole on campus. The University of Baltimore County’s LGBTQ Student Union is in the process of making that request.
“We do have a Pride flag in a space open to the public, but it is indoors and not flown on a flagpole,” said John Platter, the social and membership director of the UMBC LGBTQ Student Union. “It depends on where we want the flag hung. University administration probably would not” approve.
The Towson SGA and the campus’ Center for Student Diversity hosted events during the entire Pride Fest week prior to the university’s spring break as a part of the first ever Pride Fest.
Celebrado-Royer said the event was to “show our pride on campus. Not only our Tiger pride, but our pride to be part of a turning point in history.”
Laverne Cox, an American actress and a LGBTQ activist, spoke at the university as a part of the Pride Fest. Other events included guest speakers and a rally on campus. TU President Kim Schatzel, who spoke at the rally, mentioned that there would be more LGBTQ policies in place for students in the near future.
Schatzel’s hopeful tone did not impress Taylor.
“The administration at Towson does absolutely nothing for LGBTQ students … it was really great that [Pride Fest] was planned,” said Taylor. “It would be cool to see admin backing it up as well.”