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The Rainbow Flag
Created: 1978
Creator: Gilbert Baker
This is considered the “original” Pride flag. It originally featured eight colors, each symbolizing different aspects of the LGBTQ+ experience: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony and peace, purple for spirit, pink for sexuality, and turquoise for art and magic.
The Bisexual Pride Flag
Created: 1998
Creator: Michael Page
The Bisexual Flag consists of three solid horizontal bars: two-fifths pink, one-fifth purple, and two-fifths blue. The colours represent sexual attraction: pink for the same sex (gay and lesbian), blue for the opposite sex (straight), and purple for attraction to both sexes (bi) 🌈
The Transgender Pride Flag
Created: 1999
Creator: Monica Helms
This flag serves as a powerful symbol of transgender pride, legitimacy, and rights. Unlike the original rainbow flag, which represents the broader LGBTQ+ community, the transgender flag is specific to transgender individuals. Its design features five horizontal stripes.
The Lesbian Pride Flag
Created: 2018
Creator: Emily Gwen
Designed to represent diverse lesbian identities and experiences, the flag consists of five horizontal stripes with specific meanings: two shades of orange at the top and bottom symbolize gender non-conformity, the white stripe in the center represents transgender inclusivity, and two overlapping pink stripes signify same-gender attraction.
The Pansexual Pride Flag
Created: 2010
Creator: Unknown
The three equally-sized horizontal bars in the flag are arranged from top to bottom: pink, yellow, and cyan. While interpretations vary, some sources suggest that cyan represents attraction to men, pink represents attraction to women, and yellow represents attraction to non-binary individuals.
The Asexual Pride Flag
Created: 2010
Creator: Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN)
Designed to represent the asexual spectrum, it encompasses various levels of sexual attraction or lack thereof. The flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black for asexuality, gray for gray-asexuality and demisexuality, white for sexuality (or allosexuality) and sometimes allies, and purple to signify the community as a whole.
The Genderqueer Pride Flag
Created: 2011
Creator: Marilyn Roxie
The flag has three horizontal stripes: lavender, white, and dark chartreuse green. The lavender, a mix of pink and blue which traditionally represents women and men, expresses queer identities and androgyny. White represents gender-neutral and agender identities. Chartreuse represents identities that aren’t in the gender binary and the third gender.
The Non-Binary Pride Flag
Created: 2014
Creator: Kye Rowan
Kye Rowan created the Nonbinary Pride Flag to represent people whose gender identity does not fit within the traditional male/female binary. The colors of the nonbinary flag are yellow, white, purple, and black. The colours each symbolise a different subgroup of people who identify as non-binary. Some non-binary/genderqueer people use gender-neutral pronouns. Usage of singular ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘them’ is the most common.
The Intersex Pride Flag
Created: 2013
Creator: Morgan Carpenter
This flag went through a variety of iterations before the current Intersex Flag emerged. Previous versions embraced the rainbow that is often associated with queer pride, while others used colours like blue and pink, which are found on the transgender flag. The circle, perfect and unbroken, represents the wholeness of intersex people. It is a reminder that intersex people are perfect the way they are or choose to be.
The Progress Pride Flag
Created: 2018
Creator: Daniel Quasar
Given the evolving nature of the LGBTQ+ community and society at large, the Progress Pride Flag integrates many of these flags into one. Thankfully, it has been redesigned to place a greater emphasis on “inclusion and progression”. The modern pride flag now includes stripes to represent the experiences of people of color, as well as stripes to represent people who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC) and/or undefined.
The Rainbow ( 6 Stripe ) Flag
Created: 1979
Creator: Gilbert Baker (Updated Version)
The 6-Color Pride Flag is one of the most well-known and used LGBT flags throughout history. In 1979, the flag (Rainbow flag) was modified, aiming to decorate the streetlamps along the parade route with hundreds of rainbow banners, Gilbert Baker decided to split the motif in two with an even number of stripes flanking each lamp pole. To achieve this effect, he dropped the turquoise stripe that had been used in the seven-stripe flag. The result was the six-stripe version of the flag that would become the standard for future production.
These Flags are just some of many flags that celebrate the myriad identities within the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
These flags are more than just colourful banners; they are powerful symbols of identity, resistance, and community. While we have touched on a few here, the LGBTQ+ community encompasses a wide array of flags, each telling its own unique story and contributing to the beautiful mosaic of pride.
