For the first time, the City of Long Beach will raise a Disability Pride flag at Civic Center Plaza during the month of July to commemorate Disability Pride Month and reaffirm the city’s commitment to equality and inclusion, officials said.
The City Council unanimously approved raising the flag next month. Last year, the City Council approved a resolution to officially recognize July as Disability Pride and Empowerment Month in honor of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Enacted in July 1990, the ADA was a landmark law that codified the rights of people with disabilities in all areas of public life, including guaranteed employment and educational opportunities. The act also guaranteed access to transportation and public and private spaces.
“Symbolism and representation matter,” Councilwoman Mary Zendejas said during a City Council meeting June 18. “How we see ourselves represented in the world influences many aspects of our self-perception.”
“Flying the Disability Pride flag in the Civic Center courtyard throughout the month of July reaffirms our commitment to equality and inclusion in the world,” said Zendejas, the first city council member who uses a wheelchair and a regular advocate for accessibility from the podium.
According to Columbia University’s Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center, the Disability Pride Flag was created in 2019 as a collaborative design effort between the disability community and author Ann McGill, who has cerebral palsy.
McGill’s original design featured brightly colored zigzag stripes on a black background to represent the way people with disabilities have to navigate all the obstacles they face, but viewing the design on a phone or device triggered symptoms in people with visual impairments, leading to suggestions from the community.
The new version has straighter stripes, muted colors and a different order of stripes to accommodate people with red-green color blindness, according to the Weinberg Family Center. McGill said the new design truly represents the community because the community worked together to solve the problems.
The City of Long Beach will be raising its Disability Pride Flag in July. (Photo courtesy of City of Long Beach)
Each coloured stripe also has a meaning: red stripes represent people with physical disabilities, gold for neurodiversity, white for undiagnosed and invisible disabilities, blue for emotional and mental disabilities such as mental illness, anxiety and depression, and green for sensory disabilities such as hearing or vision impairments.
According to the Weinberg Family Center, the faded black background represents mourning and anger for victims of ableism and abuse, while the stripes also represent light and creativity.
“It’s the job of all of us to highlight this issue, talk about it and make sure we create a world that is accessible and open to people with any level of disability,” said City Councilwoman Joni Ricks O’Dea.
The Long Beach City Council voted 8-0 in July to raise the Disability Pride flag, which city officials said is also intended to recognize the valuable contributions of Long Beach’s disability community.
First published: June 21, 2024, 2:54 PM