I have no idea where to post this, so I'm putting it here.

I have a question folks - mostly out of curiosity!

Is there a WAM pride flag?

Rubber has one. So do leather, sportswear, pups, BDSM and other fetishes/kinks.

And if there isn't one - would there even be appetite for one? What would it look like? How would it be used? I have a couple of ideas, but no ideas if there would be interest or how to start!

Something similar from 3 weeks ago: https://umd.net/forums/flagging-wam

My idea was:
White = foam, Blue = water, Green = slime; all in downwards chevrons indicating a gunge tank.
The Pi symbol has to be on it really.

"Pride" is tricky though as we have not been victimised/outlawed/abused for our kink (When being gay was made legal in the UK, BDSM was used to arrest gay folks because homophobes need to homophobe).

Thanks for sharing that.

I'll gently challenge the comparison. For me, pride, in general, is about being the opposite of shame. It's not about whether it's illegal or victimised. It's about whether you've ever felt or been made to feel ashamed about it.

My thinking was:

Green - for gunge
White - for pies
Yellow - for custard (ie food play)
Blue - for water/wetlook
Brown - for mud

Something like this:

Pride flags are usually simple colour bars, so an inclusive WAM one to me would be:

Blue - for wetlook and water.
Yellow - for custard representing food-play and pies.
Bright Green - for gunge / slime.
Brown - for mud and quicksand.

Edit: Added a white pie-splat as was suggested, new 2nd pic.

Intersesting. I was kind of mirroring the leather pride flag where you have an 'emblem' in the corner.

How about Dungeon Masters 4 stripes* with a white splat for pies?

*And maybe make the stripes wavy?

A fair comment on what it means to you, it is different for everyone.

I forgot the other substances, but here's my idea. I kind of like the 'slpat' motif though.

I'd be happy with that, will see if can add. Not keen on the red splat above because it looks like blood.

I went for red because a lot of the fetish pride flags use red for the emblem - eg: https://share.google/yYlcrcVBh9rA8HwoO

I think this would be the best. Covers everything (pun intended) and the wavy lines for things being more 'fluid'.

Some great ideas.

I do feel, however, that since WAM is extremely, purile, irresponsible and silly the last thing we should feel is pride. On contrary, ought to be feeling very, very ashamed of ourselves!

I am curious why Gay pride should be part of the UMD Logo? I did notice its the Brits who raised this question, any thoughts from this side of the pond? What % is the UMD Gay? More than half? I have no idea?

There are many groups! Should we all have a pride UMD Logo? Can't we all just get along, gay, straight, color, age, religion etc.? The second we single out any group there will be conflict. Just my $0.02 worth.

Phil

I think the Pride flag version of the site logo is simply to mark Pride month. You can see these emblazoned on everything from trains to coffee cups these days as companies pretend to care about queer folks to push extra sales.

I don't see it anywhere in the USA!

P

It's to show solidarity to the LGBT+ community in Pride month, and it's because folks DON'T get along is the reason why we have to have it!

Historically there were persecutions, even now in some countries being gay is a death sentence. This is why there is Pride month, and spaces like this show support to let the LGBT+ community know this is a safe place for them, to be. There can be 1 gay person in a million users, but it's still right to support them.

And no, showing support to one group won't cause conflict...well maybe the bigots who caused the problems in the first place but upsetting them is really not an issue as they are the ones we want gone.

Well, we're trying to do better than the United States of America.

It's shockingly easy.

I have Nordic/Gypsy DNA, I was born Pagan, both my children are mixed race (Asian/Latin), I am the last person anyone would call a bigot! My relatives have been murdered and picked on the thousands of years, so do I feel safe? No! I am human, like all the rest of us, I don't need a 'pagan pride flag' or a safe place for a Gypsy, I just get along with the rest of the world the best I can.

Phil

Why do we need Pride? A friend posted this elseplace, which puts it better than I could:

First, LGBTQIA+ people exist. They have existed for at least as long as humans have existed. Given thousands of species have LGBTQIA+individuals, including primates, birds, insects, etc, then we have probably had LGBTQIA+ folk since we crawled out of the oceans. In short, (1) this is not new (2) its part of the natural order of things.

Secondly, whilst a few cultures over the last couple of thousand years have treated LGBTQIA+ with respect, many cultures, including our own, have treated LGBTQIA+ folk abhorrently over many centuries. We only have to dip into our recent past in the UK (say, the 1980s) to show unbelievable cruelty towards anyone who didn't fit a certain hetro, cis, box. Our trans fellow humans are facing appalling behaviour right now.
We are, finally, learning. But its only been in the last few years. Same sex marriage in the UK was legalised in 2014. 2014!!! Just TWELVE years ago.

We have a long, long way to go. Plus, of course, we have a whole pile of people who would love to turn the clock back because they have an unhealthy obsession with what consenting adults do with other consenting adults in private.

So lets fly that flag. For me it's to say "Our LGBTQIA+ community are part of humanity exactly the same as everyone else. We recognise them, we respect them, we honour them, we celebrate them."

(/quote)

And I'd add to that, when two men, or two women, in love, can walk down the street hand in hand, kissing and expressing their love for each other, and get no more attention from others than a hetro couple doing the same, when trans people can exist in public without fear or prejudice, when polyamarous groups can have their relationships taken every bit as seriously and legally as two-person marriage, when people can say no to offers of sex and that just be calmly accepted - then we will no longer need Pride. But until that day comes, we absolutely do.

The US in places have Nazi and the KKK banners to be raised unfortunately, so we have set a pretty low baseline

THIS IS WHY WE HAVE PRIDE MONTH!

Good for you for getting along with the rest of the world, but a large amount of folks don't want to get on with us (LGBT+), we can't control that so we have to help ourselves and those growing up. You don't want a flag, fine, but don't use that as an excuse for stopping others.

Don't like it, scroll on. You don't have to be part of it, just don't try and stop it or your doing the bigots job for them.

The greek letter pi (lower case) features in the Polyamory flag. From what I can gather, that's for the slightly lame reason that P is the first letter of the word Polyamory. I think WAM might have a more convincing reason to use the pi symbol in a flag, but the Polyamory people got there first.

I updated mine above but in case not obvious, here's the final version, with a white pie splat added. I see the point about some other fetish flags using red, but not all do, and white to me seems more appropriate for our use of pies, especially going back to the slapstick origins in black-and-white movies when white pies, or white paint, were splattered all over ladies in dark or black smart outfits.

Blue: Wetlook.
Yellow: Pudding / Foodplay.
Green: Gunge / Slime.
Brown: Mudlarking and Quicksand.
And a white splat for both pies, and paint.

That also aligns with the original pre-internet and pre-Splosh-magazine acronym WSM, which Mike of WSM, who are I think the "original original" WAM producers from the 80s, will tell you stood for Wetlook, Slapstick, and Mud, hence wetlook at the top and mud at the bottom, with food and gunge, and the splat, between them.

I get why gay pride is a thing, but why would WAM or any fetish community need a flag? Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I don't get what one thing has to do with the other.

I played around with making a "PieSexual" flag a few years back. Mainly because the wordplay made me happy. I could never come up with a good one.

The reason for pride (not just gay - bi and trans too) was because mainstream society tried to make people feel shame for their nature or sexuality. And there are still many people who think fetishes are somehow shameful. So it makes sense to have kink prides as well as the main LGBTQ+ one. Many other kinks have their own flags, so it does no harm for us to have one too. No need to use it if someone doesn't want to, but I kind of fancy having it on a badge, for the benefit of those who know what it means.

What program did you use to design your picture. I am woefully tech-crap.

I have found a few places online that print badges for £2-3 each depending on numbers and happy to make a few and send out to folks.

Wondering if we like the straight lines or want to try wavy lines etc but feel we are 'getting there'. I want to get a badge before Cambridge pride day

Sorry for delayed reply, only just spotted this.

No techno-wizardry I'm afraid, I just asked ChatGPT for it, first prompt was:

Can you create me a splosh pride flag (horizontal colour bands) with the following four colours in equal bars: Blue for water. Yellow for custard. Bright green for TV slime. Brown for mud and quicksand.

Then enhanced (in the same chat) with:

That's fabulous, could you add a white curcular "splat" as of a custard pie hit, on the left hand side, sized so that its outer "splats" just reach slightly into the blue and brown areas?

I'm more than happy for the community to use it if they want to.