Her design will be on full display at London Pride this weekend
An equality campaigner is honoured to have designed the latest Pride flag, which will be flown all across the capital for London Pride this weekend. Intersex equality campaigner designed the flag in 2021 during the pandemic, a time when she says intersex people were excluded from the census.
“If you’re not included in the census, then you don’t really exist, so we weren’t happy about that,” she told MyLondon. As a result, she updated the flag with Morgan Carpenter’s purple circle on a yellow background, right by the chevrons, which represent the Trans community.
Valentino says she also “changed the colours a little bit, because now we have fantastic new inks and textures that can produce vibrant colours”.
‘Intersex’ is an umbrella term for people who are born with or develop biological sex traits that differ from the binary notions of a male or female body.
Valentino says her design wasn’t “selected”, more that her “activism” was internationally accepted with people saying overnight that it was the new Pride flag. Valentino said: “People across the globe contacted me and said; ‘My gosh, that’s amazing, [it] suddenly gave us hope and we felt included and valued.’ It was the most beautiful moment, we’re all in a pandemic and feeling a bit hidden, but it suddenly elevated us.”
‘I was body shamed growing up’
It was also a particularly poignant moment for Valentino because she was body-shamed growing up. As an intersex woman with a beard, designing the new flag felt really “liberating”.
She added: “I’m a second-generation immigrant. I was homeless as a child, and to come from my background and have done this piece of activism on a really clunky laptop, and then suddenly be accepted and welcomed and as an intersex woman as well, with the sort of pressure and body shame I’ve grown up with, suddenly to be welcomed as a woman with a beard, felt really liberating.
“It felt like it’s the most joyous moment of inclusion. It also gave me a sense of responsibility. I didn’t know it would go viral.”
‘I get messages of support from all over the world’
The feedback Valentino’s received about her design has been “amazing” with worldwide commendation for the latest flag. She said: “People send me badges. People send me photographs of the flag. I get contacted all over the world, from large organisations, businesses, and a lot of community groups
“There are so many joyful stories, just this year I’ve done some lovely work with a small space in Canada. It’s that sort of moment of contact with little community groups as much as the other work. All of it matters, but it’s that feeling that so many people are invested in our community. It’s really lovely.”
‘My flag respects all iterations of the Pride flag’
Valentino was careful not to dismiss prior representations in earlier versions of the Pride flag. She ensured her design continued to “support people with diverse sexual orientations and people with gender identity expression”, such as Trans groups.
“Inclusive is the keyword for the flag,” she continued. “It doesn’t have any geographical point that it belongs to; it belongs to the global community, and I think that’s what’s important.”
“I’m going to continue as long as I have breath in my lungs”, Valentino said, “I’m going to continue to push for inclusion and just to uplift us, and I’m going to continue to joyfully collaborate with wonderful organisations like the Crown Estate, who have such a solid commitment to being inclusive and to welcoming the community.”
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