New flags to be flown in Portsmouth to promote diversity, call for an end to violence against woman and support the emergency services

Flags commemorating seven different causes and organisations will fly outside the Portsmouth City Council civic offices after the plans by its Culture and Leisure department of the council were given the green light on January 31. Two distinct pride flags including the Progress Pride Flag and the Intersex Progress Pride Flag will fly as symbols of diversity and inclusion for everyone in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex community (LGBTQI+). The Intersex Progress Pride Flag was created in 2021. It incorporates a purple circle on a yellow background to the Progress Pride Flag to symbolise the inclusion of intersex people.

Passersby could also spot the suffragette flag, recognised by its purple, white, and green colour scheme. The flag’s colours were invented by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, the co-editor of Women’s Social and Political Union magazine Votes for Women. The White Ribbon flag will also be seen to represent the campaign to end male violence against women and girls. The campaign began in 1991 following a massacre of female university students in Canada. Members pledge to never commit, excuse or stay silent about the issue.

The Holocaust Memorial Flag is a symbol of the national commemoration day on January 27, it’s dedicated to Jews and others who suffered throughout and after the Holocaust. The flag also signifies remembrance to those affected by subsequent genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur.

The Remembering Srebrenica flag commemorates those who suffered during the Bosnian Genocide in 1995 which involved the killing of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. It was described by the UN as “the worst atrocity on European soil since World War Two”. The emergency services flag represents 999 days, which takes place on September 9, also gives people the chance to voice their support for NHS and emergency service workers.

The campaign is supported by The King, The Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister and the First Ministers of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.