Rich’s Nightclub donates exclusionary flag to Museum of Tolerance

“I was horrified,” says Rich’s Nightclub Director of Rectitude Natasha Trigger-Warning, recalling the moment that staff discovered a Pride flag featuring Harvey Milk’s friend Gilbert Baker’s original eight-color design. “On the one hand, seeing a relic of the LGBTQIA+ community in a landmark location like Rich’s makes sense, so it’s silly to be shocked. It’s just historical fact: there was a time when our community was dominated by a white cis homo patriarchy that was all too comfortable denying the existence and humanity of trans and intersex people, and with relegating people of color to second-class status. But in another way, it was a shocking reminder of how easy it is for well-meaning people to perpetuate and even create structures of injustice. Thank goodness for our beautiful Progress flag, and bravo to Rich’s for their brave donation. People need to see these things, as painful as they are, if we as a society are going to Do Better.”