Directed by Alexis Bittar, Reclaim The Flag is a call to action.
It’s 94° F and the sun is scorching the cement steps of the Brooklyn Museum. Even though it’s early in the night—just 6:30 p.m.—a gaggle of people I usually see shrouded in the darkness of the night, from magazine directors and club kids to activists, literati, and stars are pushing their way inside to attend a documentary screening of Reclaim The Flag.
As I walk inside, I feel my friend next to me shudder at the sight of the dozens of miniature US flags littered on tables as we’re directed into the auditorium. Neither of us pick one up. It’s not typically what you’d expect from an event hosted during Pride. But that’s decidedly the point.
Reclaim The Flag is both a film and a call to arms to the LGBTQIA+ community to reimagine, recontextualize, and in a lot of ways, rehabilitate the American flag, which has become a symbol of hatred, fascism, and violence for anyone that isn’t a white, cisgender man. The project features nearly 50 LGBTQ+ voices, from Lena Waithe, George Takei, Jenna Lyons, Marc Jacobs, Bill T. Jones, Isaac Mizrahi, King Princess, Harper Steele, and Matt Bernstein. All sit with the idea of what the flag means to them, whether it can be effectively reclaimed, and what the consequences are of preventing the flag from being completely co-oped by extreme political factions.
By 7 p.m. the auditorium had filled up with stars like Naomi Watts, comedian Dana Goldberg, former club kid Dianne Brill, and television host, Eboni K. Williams. Before the film started, fashion designer and director of Reclaim The Flag, Alexis Bittar took to the stage with Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Cohen and two of his children, to address the room. “The American flag is such a powerful symbol. Being a gay man, married with 3 kids, and an Arab American, I never felt quite embraced by [it], but at the end of the day I am American. I still believe in the dreams that the American flag holds. I want to bring this conversation into everyone’s living room. Plenty of us have felt marginalized or feel the [symbol] was co-opted. It’s good to understand the root emotions we individually feel but then what actions will we all take to fight for each other and for democracy. Every one of us has a responsibility to create a better world for each other. Just imagine what we can accomplish together.”
When the lights dimmed and the film started, it felt like the room was breathing, laughing, and crying together. So much pain is spilled, from tracing the timeline of the gay liberation movement and hearing from descendants of slavery to unfurling Japanese internment camps, all of which goes back to the broken promise the flag reminds us of: that this is the land of the free. After all, no one is free when one person isn’t.
The end of the screening was punctuated by a standing ovation, cheers, and raucous applause, which was only amplified when New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, entered the room. “This film asks us a question: What does the American flag mean?,” he bellowed at the podium. “I will not claim to know every answer. But like so many who sat down for this film, to grapple with these questions with honesty and integrity, I know that there is more we can do to make our nation feel more open and inclusive. Tonight is an invitation for us to chart a new course together, one where patriotism belongs to all Americans, especially those who demand we live up to the ideals we set for ourselves.”
Upon his departure, Human Rights Campaign President, Kelley Robinson beamed how she wished Mamdani was her mayor as she sat down to present a panel. What followed was an honest conversation amongst author Andrew Solomon, content creator Matt Bernstein, writer Harper Steele, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones, NYC Council Member Chi Ossé, and journalist Kevin Ortega-Rojas.
Eboni K. Williams and actor, Wilson Cruz piped up from the audience too, addressing their thoughts on how to take back the flag from the perspectives as a Black woman and a Puerto Rican man, how colonialism changes things, and how people who don’t have another country or flag to hold on to need this one to be better.
It was a poetic and flawed conversation, one with a million roadmaps that led to only one conclusive answer. As the US draws closer to its 250 year anniversary, it’s time to write a new story for America. One of the many ways you can do that is to reclaim the flag, and fly it alongside symbols of love.
“LGBTQ+ Americans have as much claim to this nation as anyone else. We’ve contributed as much to this nation as anyone else,” said Robinson. “We’ve got the right and the responsibility to fly our patriotism alongside our pride. Together we can create a future where our children feel just as safe surrounded by the American flag as they do when surrounded by Pride flags.”
