Indy business showcases ‘Flags for Good’ during Pride month
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Pride flag has become a key symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. One Indy-based business owner is helping people express its value one flag at a time.
The rainbow first became associated with Pride back in 1978. Since then, the rainbow concept has taken off, setting the foundation for the roughly 50 LGBTQAI+-related flags.
The owner founded the company Flags for Good, knowing they often represent a powerful piece of one’s identity.
Flags are where Michael Green found his passion. So, much so that he turned it into a business.
“As a flag nerd. I do try to keep up with flag history because, in the end, flags are just pieces of an identity,” Green said.
But Pride season he says is like the Christmas rush. Every day fulfilling a backlog of orders in the hundreds.”Even though we make all kinds of flags, pride flags are sort of the largest bucket of things that we do.”
Three years ago, Green said after trying to buy a Black Lives Matter flag in the same place Confederate flags were being sold, it didn’t feel right. So, he wanted to create a place he believed in, and Flags for Good was formed.
“We are a flag company that only prints flags that we believe in. We also donate a portion of every flag that we sell to a relevant charity for that cause,” he said.
Growing from a part-time gig operated out of a room in his home into this office space inside the Amp.
Green says flags for so many are more than just colorful, stripped design on canvas, it tells a story of who they are.”Pride flags especially are an outward example of someone’s lived experience. When people as we see on the news are attacking LGBTQ-plus people and stealing flags, we see a lot. It’s a very deep thing. Although it’s just a flag, it means a lot.”
Not only can flags be representatives of identity. They serve as visual markers and create safe spaces.
“When you see a pride flag or even one of these safe space garden flags. You know that that space is a safe space,” Green said.
And as Indiana copes with growing legislation impacting the LGBTQ+ community, he says now may be the time to plant your flag.