America gay flag

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never bought a pride flag, much less displayed one, in my some years. I’ve been gay for all those years, and openly, publicly so for almost all of them, but have never flown the rainbow flag.

But recently, lost in thought on my front lawn here in a small town in central North Carolina, I looked up at the American flag I fly from the front porch. Five years ago, I wrote why I decided to hang the Stars and Stripes, reclaiming it as a flag of all the people, not just some. I remember thinking I was making a statement about inclusion, equality under the law and, yes, patriotism. No one, no political party, should hold the U.S. flag hostage.

When people ask me where I live, I proudly tell them, “It’s the house with the Stars and Stripes. You can’t miss it.”

A friend's flag helped me detect a reason to demonstrate my pride

Then, my neighbor and friend Pier Carlo Talenti, also a lgbtq+ man, posted a photo of his charming cottage with a big celebration flag hung on the front porch, seeming to wave at anyone passing by. He wrote, “For the first time ever, I’m flying a Self-acceptance flag