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Gilbert Baker, an openly gay artist and drag performer, designed the Pride flag in 1978. Who designed the Pride flag? Marchers carrying placards in honour of Gilbert Baker. On the 50th anniversary of UK Pride, we take a look back at the flag’s graphic design history, colourful development, and iterations across the decades. But since its debut, it’s proven a popular, enduring, and highly adaptable piece of design. The rainbow flag was first designed in the late ’70s – almost a decade after the Stonewall riots, which subsequent Pride marches commemorate. The LGBT community has not always had the striped symbol however. Whether they end up together or with other people, seeing two such brilliantly realized LGBT+ characters on screen, upfront and proud, makes Young Royals a real treat amongst queer dramas.As Pride kicks off this month, it’s hard to picture a time when celebrations were not draped in rainbow flags. But with season 2 already announced, viewers are hoping that we’ll see a happy ending still for Wilom. Young Royals didn’t end on a happy note for Willie and Simon, with circumstances and the pressure Willie feels from his family and position coming between them. Nonetheless, he is unwilling to be pushed around and, as the season progresses, is unwilling to live in secrecy. Simon is outgoing and unafraid to speak his mind, but he is also portrayed as kind and understanding. They have problems, but for once, not those problems. In fact, Micke moves the conversation onward without dwelling on Simon’s words at all, simply accepting them. Viewers like the fact that although Simon clearly has a complicated, somewhat unhappy relationship with his father, their estrangement doesn’t center around Simon’s sexuality. Micke: I remember what it was like to try and impress a girl. This is made explicitly clear right in the first episode when Simon asks his estranged father Micke to get him alcohol for an initiation party at Hillerska. Simon, on the other hand, identifies as gay. When, in the first season’s most shocking twist, Willie’s older brother and heir to the throne, Erik, is killed in a car accident, it changes things. As a younger son, he doesn’t have the pressure to produce an heir, so he may have more freedom in his situation than he would otherwise … at least to start with. Instead, what Willie struggles with is what place those feelings have in his future as a royal. He seems to accept them pretty quickly, in fact. Throughout the story, Willie isn’t seen to have much conflict over his feelings for Simon in themselves. It’s about who he is as a person, who he wants to be, and what is important to him - or what has to be important to him, whether he wants it to be or not. Willie’s story and his portrayal are so beloved by viewers because although it has many themes of self-discovery, his story isn’t just “a coming out story.” It’s so much more than that.
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Ryding has stated that the show not labeling his character was intentional. The prince’s sexuality is never labeled in the show, though he canonically has a relationship with Simon. Let’s take a look at why and discuss Willie and Simon in more detail - spoilers ahead! Prince Wilhelm of Sweden Netflix So, off he goes to Hillerska, black eye and all. Unfortunately for Willie, getting into a fight at a party and having pictures of it posted online is about as far from “princely” as his family can imagine. Despite his older brother Erik (Ivar Forsling) being in line for the throne, Willie is held to the same princely standards that he is. Set at a Hillerska, a fictional elite boarding school in Sweden, the show follows Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) - known as “Willie” by his fellow students - as he is sent away to the school by his family. Is it any wonder that audiences have been eating up Netflix’s Young Royals? Take all the royal drama offered by shows such as The Crown and turn it into a compelling teenage school drama. We will focus on fictional characters, celebrities, and activists alike - the positive voices within the LGBTQIA+ community and in mainstream media. Welcome to the latest installment of our 2022 Pride Month Series! Each weekday in the month of June, we will be highlighting a different member of the LGBTQIA+ community who we think is a great example of representation and dynamic characterization.