The Pride Flag of Des Moines. Image provided by Flag of Des Moines

Soon, residents may notice a new version of the flag of Des Moines popping up on front porches across the city: the Pride Flag of Des Moines, a vibrant, 11-color design created in collaboration with Capital City Pride, the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement (DSM BLM) and One Iowa.

“The first thing I thought when I saw the flag was ‘my two little boys are going to be so pumped,’” said Courtney Reyes, executive director of One Iowa. “When they see the pride flag, they know … that means that their family is seen, and there’s so much power in that.”

The Pride Flag of Des Moines, designed by Mason Kessinger, overlays the traditional Des Moines flag’s white, three-bridge pattern over pride stripes from left to right, beginning with a brighter red than the tone that anchors the city flag. Black, brown, light blue, pink and light gray cap off the pattern to represent Black, brown and transgender intersectionality in the LGBTQ+ community.

Kessinger ultimately drafted 18 versions of the Pride Flag of Des Moines before the final design was announced jointly by Flag of Des Moines, Capital City Pride, DSM BLM and One Iowa on May 1. Available for pre-order through Flag of Des Moines, 15% of the Des Moines Pride Flag proceeds will go to benefit the three partnering organizations.

“People will decide what [the flag] means to them. For me, it means the potential for people to see the flag and recognize that people exist, and that space needs to be made for and carved out for them, and protected and consistently cared for in this city,” DSM BLM field operations officer Maté Muhammad said.

Although the first pride flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, pride flag designs have continuously been updated and adapted by different LGBTQ+ communities. In 2017, the Philadelphia Office of LGBTQ Affairs unveiled the first pride flag to incorporate black and brown stripes; in 2018, Portland, Ore.-based designer Daniel Quasar added a chevron to the left side of the flag that featured both black/brown stripes and the blue/pink/white of the Trans Pride flag.

The idea for a local pride flag was planted in Mason and Emily Kessinger’s heads soon after launching their small business Flag of Des Moines in 2018, but it wasn’t until the pandemic lockdown in early 2020 that Mason began drafting a design, Emily told the Business Record.

“This is all about collaboration,” Emily said. “I think it’s important for our network that hasn’t considered the LGBTQ community as much, or the trans community or the Black and brown community — what could it mean for them to step up and out, and take a stance?”

Incorporating the five additional stripes on top of the traditional pride rainbow highlights voices that have been central to the LGBTQ+ community’s fight for recognition, said Destinee Woodris, a board member for Capital City Pride.

“Iowa is a very white state, but there are Black and brown voices in here who are also LGBTQ. There was an issue trying to bridge the gap and really connect those communities,” Woodris said. “Now we’re moving towards incorporating Black and brown voices. The flag is symbolic for that, because it recognizes that historically, that has not always been the case. While we as a community are trying to change over, turn a new leaf, there’s still some work to be done.

“When I looked at the flag, I saw a symbol of hope and a symbol of what we’re working towards.”

The flag’s three stripes representing transgender pride also highlight a community under attack: In the U.S., more than 200 transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals have been killed since 2013, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2020 report tracking anti-transgender violence.

In Iowa, 15 bills drafted during the recent state legislative period targeted the LGBTQ+ community in some way, Reyes said.

“Ten of them targeted the trans community specifically, and eight of them targeted transgender youth,” Reyes said. “As a society, LGB folks have a lot of privilege that trans folks don’t have. We have to keep pushing the envelope forward. … That does make people really uncomfortable, but I want my trans friends to stop living in fear.”

The Pride Flag of Des Moines is one of the first projects that DSM BLM has collaborated on with a private business since the collective organized in 2020, Muhammad said. While DSM BLM’s mission is centering Black voices and leadership, the organization is also learning from other organizations that model inclusive policymaking and programming.

Organizers with DSM BLM and the Iowa Queer Communities of Color Coalition are in the planning stages of a multi-month personal safety and communications device drive — such as cellphones, security cameras, pepper spray and other devices — for Black LGBTQ+ individuals, who are at greater risk of being targeted in anti-LGBTQ+ violence.

“We have a department that’s just dedicated to culture-keeping, and dedicated to making sure that we continue to have the conversations and push ourselves,” Muhammad said. “I think the best learning, honestly, comes from being open to having conversations, and being open to your own shortcomings. That’s one of the main things in these culture-keeping conversations that are ongoing indefinitely.”

Finding partnerships that step beyond performative symbolism is a priority for DSM BLM, he added.

“If we can build relationships with people that are willing to open these conversations up, willing to search for solutions to these problems and also willing to put their money where their mouth is in the short term, we find those partnerships to be mutually advantageous,” Muhammad said.

As for the Pride Flag of Des Moines, expect to see it at homes and businesses soon, said Emily Kessinger.

The North American Vexillological Association plans to feature the flag design in an upcoming edition of its newsletter, and Flag of Des Moines is working with the city of Des Moines’ LGBT Advisory Council to propose that the city recognize the pride design for Pride Month in June. Capital City Pride expects the flag to be present at many of the 30 Days of Pride events through June.

“It’s important to know that this is a brand-new flag, and this is capturing where we were, where we are now and where we need to go,” Woodris said. “The goal of any flag is to have it fly all year.”

“We exist all year round,” Reyes added. “It’s not always easy being LGBTQ here, and people like to glaze over that. But it’s hard. We want to fly a flag with joy, and know that we need to do the work.”