New Pride Flag Showing Ukraine Color Striping Angers Some On Social Media Who Don't Realize It's Fake

The Pride flag has undergone various minor alterations in its lifetime, with trans and BIPOC striping added to it as a way to show inclusive solidarity with these core groups within the greater LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Recently, however, it seems a push has been made to include a blue-and-yellow stripe to the flag's arrow design as part of solidarity with Ukraine, which earned the ire of many Republicans, political pundits and other users on Twitter in recent days who began to point out how Ukraine's government doesn't recognize many gay rights compared to other European countries or the U.S.

When you virtue signal too hard. Ukrainian flag added to pride flag, but gay marriage is banned there pic.twitter.com/ltuHA0O1Gz

— FlimFlam (@JDscramble425) May 23, 2022

The new pride flag includes Ukraine’s colors. I’m pro LGB etc but this flag is starting to get ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/BU5smSNpes

— Bostonians Against Michelle Wu (@AntiWuCoalition) May 23, 2022

My pronoun is Ukrainian. Put it on the new made up Pride flag! Never mind gays have no rights in the Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/rTIf3IIY5v

— Tyler (@wickmyth) May 23, 2022

This flag is pretty inclusive. All it leaves out are straight white Americans pic.twitter.com/NyHUiUjQRi

— 🦄 Fuq-U-nℹ️©️🅾️®️n🦄 (@AntiTaxUnicorn) May 23, 2022

The only problem, however, is that the flag itself was ironic from the very beginning. The flag was first made by Twitter user @Aryanfa**ot on Sunday, who made the flag in response to someone posting the 2018 updated Pride flag while claiming it was more inclusive.

This prompted the Ukrainian variant to be created and posted, which was then later picked up by Marjorie Taylor Greene and other accounts who took it to be unironic, using it as a talking point against an enemy that didn't really exist.

Yes! #diversityisourstrength. However, i want to gently add that ese are the old colours that excluded folx. The updated #pride colours did not include some folx, e.g. Ukrainians. The updated flag since 2022 is below with inclusive colours. pic.twitter.com/Ka6iWL8OrA

— ly (@ARYANFAGGOT) May 22, 2022

Do the Nazi’s in the Ukrainian army know? #Azov pic.twitter.com/IcRTJFbQYa

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 23, 2022

The time between current thing to the next current thing is the refractory period before more stripes get added. pic.twitter.com/Nc0h1hZdMa

— The Prudentialist (@MrPrudentialist) May 23, 2022

La nueva bandera de la diversidad incluye los colores café y negro haciendo referencia a la gente de color (POC). ¿Entonces ser POC es una orientación sexual? Es pregunta seria. pic.twitter.com/SKQRXKsBH1

— NuevaDerechaMx (@MxDerecha) May 23, 2022

Even though the flag was fake and it was being obviously pushed as something that it wasn't, it didn't take long for people to simply see and comment on it without having any political takes — meaning that even though the flag didn't actually come from the left, the thought that it did was enough to make people think it truly did.

This led to a lot of people posting about the flag itself and not even mentioning the original ironic meaning, which is Ukrainian lives, or the real meaning of gay rights, but instead focusing on faux semantics.

Love how the rainbow is slowly disappearing lmao pic.twitter.com/A7N7poGKaH

— Gay Toad (@GayToad_3) May 23, 2022

Why do they keep adding bars to this thing. pic.twitter.com/MVEd2aouDi

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 23, 2022

New Pride flag just dropped pic.twitter.com/nNSDuksjVw

— cat milk respecter 1488 (@SinoRussian) May 24, 2022