The Red Flagged Roundtable - Queer Esea Creatives on What Needs to Change About Pride

This weekend, from 5th July, Pride festivities are taking over London and the importance of the event feels more contentious than ever. The corporatisation of Pride has been an issue for many of the past few iterations but conversely, the LGBTQ+ community needs Pride more than ever in the face of the normalisation and legalisation of transphobia in the UK and countries like America pushing forward more and more queerphobic propaganda. This year in particular has seen many reflecting on whether the drop in businesses partaking in Pride should be seen as a warning for worse things yet to come. 

It feels especially crucial to spotlight the organisations and creatives who are making tangible change for the queer community during a time of such conflicted feeling about Pride in particular, which is why Polyester has paired with RED FLAGGED to celebrate the work they do with the queer ESEA community in London. Speaking with the RED FLAGGED founders, Ed Lee and Alex Han, as well as guests for our upcoming Pride dinner next week, we hosted a roundtable conversation about the importance of this particular intersection of identity. Below, alongside Ed and Alex, musician Princess Xixi, creative and model Dodo Potato and legal advisor and founder of baobae Lex Chan, we get inspiring words to consider going into the nuanced discussions around Pride this year.

Do you think Pride has become too corporate?

Lex: In some ways, yes. Pride should not be another marketing opportunity - it should be a space for protest, care, joy, and genuine amplification. That said, I do understand that mainstream visibility can be powerful when it is done with integrity and real accountability to the communities being represented.

The issue is when brands take from queer culture without investing in the people who create it. If you are profiting from queer narratives, you need to be hiring queer folks, crediting them, and paying them properly.

Dodo: I have always said yes but given the amount of corporate sponsors dropping out this year maybe no?! I think a lot of my friends and I feel a bit alienated from regular Pride when it feels like it’s an excuse for straight people to party with all the corporate sponsors and cops. 

Why is it so important to amplify queer east and southeast Asian voices in particular?

Ed: There’s such a lack of representation and recognition of us as a collective group. I’ve always felt like there’s more to be seen and said for our community in this generation. So many trailblazers have had to defy cultural expectations, homophobic countries, and racism. We rarely show up together—often seen as shy, not always as loud or proud as other cultures, or not viewed as ‘cool’ due to unfair Western stereotypes. But there’s power in collectivism, and I wanted to change that trajectory.

Xixi: Because otherwise people forget we exist until they want a cyberpunk photoshoot or a cover for their underground drain gang-adjacent soundcloud track. We would like to be heard not just consumed and moodboarded.

What’s the reason organisations like RED FLAGGED need to exist?

Alex: The reason RED FLAGGED exists is that we exist and we deserve respect and to be heard and seen as equals. Asians are naturally very reserved; we have been taught not to brag about our successes and to keep our heads down, but we are done playing nice. It’s time to take pride in who we are and what we contribute to the world. It’s beyond representation; it’s about lasting societal change.

Lex: We need spaces where queer ESEA people are not just included, but centred. Red Flagged exists to confront the cultural challenges so many of us face in creative industries, whether it’s the lack of representation, the feeling of being the only one in the room or the silence around mental health. Through mixers and community moments across music, film, and fashion, RED FLAGGED creates connection where there was once isolation. 

How does your identity as a queer east or southeast Asian person feed into your creative work? 

Xixi: The constant, gnawing feeling of isolation and exclusion I feel wherever I go (which is exacerbated by being mixed race) coupled with the rich cultural heritage I’m able to pull from is something my work is very indebted to. I don’t take it for granted at all，感谢祖辈感谢我的血脉

Ed: It’s my secret sauce. The lens I see the world through is shaped by being both queer and ESEA — navigating multiple identities, translating cultures, decoding microaggressions in real time. It gives me empathy, edge, and a deep understanding of what it means to exist in-between. That perspective shows up in everything I make, from events to brand campaigns — I bring stories that don’t usually get airtime.

Who are your personal east and southeast Asian queer heroes?

Xixi: Leslie Cheung 张国荣. Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉. Li Qingzhao 李清照. Guanyin. Jose Rizal (allegedly), and every closeted aunty who’s been thru more than any of us spoilt, pampered, enfeebled Western-born ingrates could even begin to dream of - or write mediocre diaspora poetry about.

Lex: There are so many, but a few names stay with me. I do not know a lot about Park Han-hee, but the fact that she became South Korea’s first openly trans lawyer and continues to fight for queer and trans rights is incredibly powerful. And Leslie Cheung - the way he moved through the world with beauty, vulnerability, and defiance still resonates across generations.

But honestly, most of my heroes are the ones I see around me. Friends, collaborators, the people in the group chat. The ones building something out of nothing, holding each other up, feeding each other, and checking in when things get hard. That quiet, consistent care is the real legacy.

What issues should we be focusing on this Pride?

Dodo: I feel like there’s so many issues we should be focusing on, it’s hard to pinpoint just one - trans people are losing their rights, disabled people are losing their rights, sex workers are losing their rights and more and more Palestinians are getting killed by the minute while we’re losing our freedom of speech speaking up about these issues. These issues are all interlinked and none of us are free until we’re all free.

Lex: We should be focusing on trans safety, and not just in theory. That means protection from violence, access to healthcare, safe housing, and freedom to exist in public spaces without fear. We also need to support community-led mutual aid as this is integral to dignity and survival - grassroots care systems that provide what institutions often don’t: housing help, food, funds, therapy.

And finally: rest and boundaries. Especially for queer people of colour who are often doing the most - organising, performing, caregiving and holding the room. Pride should be where we feel held, not just seen.