Marriage Equality: MakeItEqual.org is rethinking the American flag

July 8, 11:29 AMSex & Relationships ExaminerSarah Estrella

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The Flag of Equal Marriage: An evolving representation of equal rights progres

I've been covering the Marriage Equality movement since I started this Sex & Relationships column at the end of 2008, and just stumbled across a cool project to help give visual representation to the movement's progress:

MakeItEqual.org is proposing a new, evolving protest flag, evoking the United Equal Suffrage States of America flag that flew – with just four stars – at the podium of the First International Women's Suffrage Conference in 1902.

The new Flag of Equal Marriage currently has just three stars, representing Massachussets, Connecticut, and Iowa. It will get three more in the next 6 months, representing Vermont (effective September 1, 2009), Maine (September 14, 2009), and New Hampshire (January 1, 2010).

The flag, designed by Carl Tashian for a listener's contest at Studio360, was chosen as the winner by guest judge Isaac Mizrahi. Check out other designs from the Gay Flag Makeover Studio 360 Design Challenge here.

Via MakeItEqual.org:

We want the flag of equal marriage to be complete, with all 50 stars lit up. We see three ways equal marriage, as we define it, could be achieved:

1. Every individual state could pass a law allowing same-sex marriage.

2. The federal government could repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and allow same-sex marriage at the federal level, overriding all state-level bans.

3. The term "marriage" could be removed from state and/or federal laws, turning all "marriages" into civil unions in the eyes of the government. PLUS, same-sex civil unions would need to be recognized in all 50 states or at the federal level.

Our protest flag helps you track our progress toward completion of one of these three goals.

Studio360 also commissioned Gay Flag Makeover designs from design firm Worldstudio. Click over to vote for your favorite.