Who passes the peace flag off as the LGBT flag and why?
Recently, a number of mass media outlets have published fake news claiming that “LGBT activists in Rome are protesting against the decision to provide Ukraine with more weapons.”
Left-wing trade unions and socialists are at the forefront of the anti-Ukrainian movement, along with LGBT activists whose flags were waved at the demonstration too brightly," says one such publication, illustrated with a rainbow flag.
LGBT ACTIVISTS AND SOCIALISTS IN ROME PROTEST AGAINST MELONI’S DECISION TO DELIVER MORE WEAPONS TO UKRAINE
However, they are wrong. In fact, the flag in the hands of demonstrators in Rome symbolizes peace. Even though both the LGBT flag and the Peace Flag are based on the rainbow, they should not be confused as they have key differences:
- a number of coloured stripes;
- a sequence of colours;
- PACE inscription
✔ While the first flag consists of SIX longitudinal stripes (from top to bottom: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), the most common version of the second one has SEVEN stripes (from top to bottom: purple, blue, light-blue, green, yellow, orange, and red). As you can see, the second flag has an additional light-blue color, and the flag itself seems to be upside down. Moreover, the light-blue and green stripes bear a white inscription saying “PACE,” which means "peace" in Italian.
The peace flag was first used in Italy at the peace march in 1961. The idea of the flag was inspired by similar colourful flags used in demonstrations against nuclear weapons. The previous version featured a dove painted by Pablo Picasso.
It gained popularity thanks to the 2002 Pace da tutti i balconi (“peace from every balcony”), the campaign launched as a protest against the upcoming invasion of Iraq.
At the time, its use was criticized by the Italian LGBT community for being too similar to the six-color LGBT flag of the LGBT Gay Pride Parade (which was initially created in San Francisco, California, in 1979) and had come into regular use in Italy a couple of years earlier during the celebration of the first 2000 World Pride in Rome.
Interestingly, the links left in the abovementioned misleading publication have no references to the LGBT movement at all. Journalists based their conclusions of its participation on a mere similarity between the flags. Moreover, the demonstration was non-party and in support of the Ukrainian people and solidarity “with the victims of all wars.”
Besides, the journalists – if one can call them so – contradict themselves by writing that “the participants unfurled a 50-meter peace flag” in one of the references.
We assume they did it to discredit this movement by alleging it does not support Ukraine. LGBT representatives likely attended this demonstration, but only as private individuals and did not represent the position of the entire movement 
