The many flags of the
Pride
Rainbow

Since its first flight at 1978’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, the rainbow flag has evolved multiple times. Most known of the six-strip Rainbow Pride flag with the colors representing:

Red: Life

Orange: Healing

Yellow: Sunlight

Green: Nature

Blue: Harmony

Violet: Spirit

However, the earliest iteration was an eight-strip flag included pink and turquoise stripes, symbolizing sex and art/magic, respectively—parts of queer life that the designer thought was worth fighting for. 

This original rainbow flag was created in 1978 by artist, designer, Vietnam War veteran and then-drag performer, Gilbert Baker [Baker also has a drag persona named, awesomely, Busty Ross]. He was commissioned to create a flag by another gay icon, politician Harvey Milk, for San Francisco’s annual pride parade.

Baker’s design is based off the Flag of the Races. A five-strip from the Republic of China.  China’s Five Races Under One Union was one of the major principles upon which the Republic of China founded in 1911 at the time of the Xinhai Revolution.  Each color represented each of the major ethnic groups as one union.

Following Milk’s assassination in 1978, demand for the gay pride flag as a symbol of hope and joy for a mourning community increased. Choosing not to trademark the design — Baker wanted the flag to be kept a free symbol for all in the community to use — he took it to San Francisco’s Paramount Flag Company for help mass producing it. This company started in the 1930s and is no longer exists today.  Most of the original flag were hand- stitches by Baker.  Paramount Flag Company had a problem: The hot pink fabric, which represented sexuality, was not in available for mass production, so Baker dropped the hot pink stripe.

So what about the turquoise?

From the Gay Pride New Orleans’ history, says it was about making the flag more street-ready after the assassination of Harvey Milk:

Wishing to demonstrate the gay community’s solidarity in response to this tragedy, the 1979 Pride Parade Committee decided to use Baker’s flag in honor of Milk. The committee eliminated the turquoise stripe so they could divide the colors evenly as they walked the parade route, three colors on one side of the street and three on the other.

Meanwhile, Syracuse New Times has a similar story that said that it was due to the challenge of splitting the colors in half to evenly hang on posts.

So the pride flag’s design was shaped by the circumstances of the gay rights movement—first, by necessity as Gilbert looked for a supplier who could produce them industrially for use in the early days of San Francisco’s pride marches. Then, by the widespread popularity of the flag and its evolution into a nation-wide symbol, which made its odd number of colors difficult to manipulate. 

The six-stripe flag was born

The six-stripe became popularized and is the most recognized by the International Association of Vexillological Associations.

Meanwhile
1998:

Michael Page designs the bisexual pride flag, a three-color design. Page explained that the pink represents same-sex attraction, the blue represents opposite-sex attraction, and the purple overlap represents attraction to both.  1

1999:

Monica Helms, a transgender woman, creates the transgender pride flag. The light pink and blue represent the colors traditionally associated with girls and boys, and the white represents transitioning, neutral or undefined genders, and intersexuality. “No matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives,” Helms said of the flag.  2

2013:

Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia chose yellow and purple to represent the intersex flag because none of these colors represent the traditional constructs of binary identities [male and female].

The circle is the intersex flag is also described by Morgan as “unbroken and unornamented, symbolizing wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities. We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolizes the right to be who and how we want to be”. It is not used, as often thought, to represent the differences in sexual and gender identities that members of the community experience.

However, it is important to note that not all members of the intersex community have embraced this intersex flag. Some of them will not identify with what it represents. As a result, there have been many changes to the intersex flag over the years, with many other flags being used concurrently. However, this is the most widely recognized.

Back to the Rainbow Pride Flag

Following an outcry over racism in Philadelphia’s Gayborhood, the city commissioned the design of a new eight-color flag with black and brown stripes to recognize the contributions of LGBTQ+ people of color. The flag was unveiled at Philadelphia’s Pride celebration in 2017 and remains the official LGBTQ+ flag of the City of Philadelphia.  3

In 2017, a new Pride flag was introduced by the city of Philadelphia. Commissioned by the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs as part of its More Color, More Pride campaign, the flag was meant to better represent the inclusion of queer people of color — people who, despite having played a foundational role in the modern LGBTQ rights movement, often faced marginalization in white and gay cis-male centered spaces. Forgetting that the Stonewall Riots starting the LGBT movement were mostly Black Dag Queens. In Philly earlier that year, several gay bars had faced investigations into complaints of racist discrimination at 11 gay bars. Raising the new flag outside City Hall during Pride 2017, the message of queer inclusion and intersectionality was clear. 4

The black and brown stripes represented the Black and Latino communities.

Hikes, a black queer Philly woman, said the flag is an especially important symbol for Philadelphia. She said the city’s popular gay neighborhood — dubbed the "gayborhood" — has a history of racism. In 2016, social justice groups became furious after a video surfaced showing the owner of a popular gay bar using the N-word. Bars in the neighborhood were also accused of discriminatory-dress code policies. 5

The Philadelphia Flag was absolutely intended to be Philadelphia-specific [created by the government over the whole LGBTQ community]. Nevertheless, it was rapidly adopted around the world and gave representation to black and brown people in the LGBTQ community and their experiences.

All three versions of Baker’s flag were intended for all LGBTQ people to feel represented under it.  The Philadelphia Flag started a new movement with the Rainbow Pride Flag with division within the flag’s representation. No longer was it solely about LGBTQ sexuality and their spirit; It now represented one whole community and the other by two races leaving out other races.

Another change making the “Progress” Pride Flag

Inspired by the new Philadelphia Pride Flag, Daniel Quasar, a queer, non-binary graphic designer in Oregon, set out to create a version of the flag that would help elevate marginalized queer identities even further. Released in 2018, their “Progress” Pride Flag incorporates the colors of the Trans Pride Flag and, in its black stripe, also honored those both living with and lost to HIV/AIDS. The inclusion of an arrow was intentional, too. Quasar said, “The arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made.”

The flag used the six-stripe design. The black and brown was incorporated in the triangle for the black and brown LGBTQ people while the black triangle performed duel representations of those living and lost to HIV/AIDS.

One more time?

In 2021, the Pride flag got another update from intersex writer and Intersex Equality Rights UK advocacy group member Valentino Vecchietti. Incorporating the design of the 2013 intersex flag, it got a positive response from members of the community. Vecchietti’s advocacy group said: “Since we posted this flag… intersex people and allies from all over the globe have said it is bringing them joy to see intersex inclusion.”

Hikes, the black queer woman from Philly added, “If [the original] symbol was inclusive, there is nothing wrong with having a further inclusive symbol,” 6

So Baker’s 8-stripe Rainbow Pride flag representing LGBTQ+ community as a whole by their sexuality and spirit has gone to the LGBTQ+ community plus Black and Brown LGBTQ+ people, plus Transgender people while honoring those living with and lost to HIV/AIDS, plus intersex people flag. One may ask the question: where are the lesbians or gays or queers in this flag? It should be noted that there are flags for each of these community though they are not used as much by these communities. But there are many others not included. The display of flags below are just a few flags of the LGBTQQIP2SAA which stands for: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two spirit, asexual, and ally.

Pick your flag

Lesbian, Gay Men, Queer, Polysexual, Pan Sexual, Allies,

Agender, Non-Binary, Genderfluidity, Omnisexual, Demisexual, Androyne

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1 Queer is the Word https://queerintheworld.com/
2 From http://www.gayprideneworleans.com/articles/002.htm
3 This article is part of  “In Session: The Teen Vogue Lesson Plan” by Ben Deane, Published: Jun 12, 2021 Philadelphia Inquirer
4 “Controversy Flies Over Philadelphia's New Pride Flag” by Julie Compton, June 15, 2017, NBC News.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.