Pride Month: Ayushmann Khurrana highlights new, more gender-inclusive Pride flag

Ayushmann Khurrana, who is the Celebrity Advocate of UNICEF in India, marked Pride Month by bringing attention to the all-new Pride flag that has been unveiled aiming to make the movement more gender-inclusive.

Ayushmann Khurrana is one Bollywood actor who is truly making a difference in the real world with his reel portrayal of a range of characters that act as a mirror to society, highlighting those aspects of life and society that are often considered too taboo to discuss. The Shubh Mangal Saavdhaan actor often uses his films and social media handles to promote inclusivity, and on Monday, he marked the Pride Month by bringing attention to the all-new Pride flag that has been unveiled aiming to make the movement more gender-inclusive.

The actor, who portrayed an openly gay man on screen in the movie Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhaan, and is the Celebrity Advocate of UNICEF in India, when asked to elaborate on his choice of the new Pride flag, revealed, "I read about the intent with which the new design of the Pride flag has been unveiled and I wanted to bring attention to this important conversation. The new design by Intersex Equality Rights, UK incorporates intersex people into the movement."

Speaking about the intersex movement, he further said, "I try and bring focus towards inclusivity as much as possible with my films and social media and I do feel that people need to be aware of the intersex movement. As actors, we are fortunate that we can raise awareness to important issues and I'm trying to do my bit by speaking about Pride month."

The rainbow flag has seen many modifications over the years. It originally was designed by American artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker, with the colour variety representing the diversity of the LGBTQ community. The flag flew at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.

According to britannica.com, Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky. He chose eight colours, each symbolising something. Hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.

Later, due to production issues, the pink and turquoise stripes were removed while indigo was replaced with blue resulting in the contemporary six-striped flag. It was not until the year 1994 that the flag really became a prominent symbol of the community.

In 2017, the flag incorporated black and brown stripes to include people of colour, under the leadership of American civil rights activist Amber Hikes, Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs. In 2018, the flag was once again redesigned by Daniel Quasar to include the transgender community.

Ayushmann had also shared a post about his film Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan completing a year, and he wrote, "Taboo topics need to be constantly addressed through our cinema because it can really help alter the mindset of people. It takes a lot of time and effort to normalise taboo subjects and bring about constructive changes in society. I`m glad that we tried to contribute towards making the conversation about same-sex relationships in India mainstream through Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Ayushmann, who made his Bollywood debut with the 2012 film Vicky Donor, in the past couple of years has delivered a string of hits. Ayushmann currently has Anek, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui and Doctor G in the pipeline. The actor was last seen in Shoojit Sircar's Gulabo Sitabo, alongside megastar Amitabh Bachchan.