Apride flag is anyflag that represents a segment or part of theLGBTQ community.Pride in this case refers to the notion ofLGBTQ pride. The termsLGBTQ flag andqueer flag are often used interchangeably.[1]
Numerous communities have embraced distinct flags, with a majority drawing inspiration from the rainbow flag. These flags are often created by amateur designers and later gain traction online or within affiliated organizations, ultimately attaining a semi-official status as a symbolic representation of the community. Typically, these flags incorporate a range of colors that symbolize different aspects of the associated communities.
Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow pride flag for the 1978San Francisco Gay Freedom Day celebration.[2] The flag was designed as a "symbol of hope" and liberation, and an alternative to the symbolism of thepink triangle.[3] The flag does not depict an actual rainbow. Rather, the colors of the rainbow are displayed as horizontal stripes, with red at the top and violet at the bottom. It represents the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. In the original eight-color version, pink stood for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.[4] A copy of the original 20-by-30 foot, eight-color flag was made by Baker in 2000 and was installed in theCastro district in San Francisco.[5]
Many variations on the rainbow flag exist, including ones incorporating other LGBTQ symbols like the triangle or lambda.[6] In 2018, designerDaniel Quasar created a modified version of the rainbow pride flag, incorporating elements of other flags to bring focus on inclusion and progress. This flag is known as the Progress Pride Flag. In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK redesigned the Progress Pride Flag to incorporate theintersex flag.[7][8]
Original eight-stripe version designed by Gilbert Baker (1978)
Seven-stripe version with hot pink color removed due to a lack of fabric (1978)
Six-stripe version with turquoise color removed and indigo color changed to royal blue (1979)
Daniel Quasar's Progress variant of the rainbow pride flag (2018)
Valentino Vecchietti's intersex-inclusive Progress Pride Flag (2021)
Thearomantic pride flag consists of five horizontal stripes, which are (from top to bottom) green, light green, white, gray, and black. The flag was created by Cameron Whimsy[9] in 2014.[10] The green and light green stripes represent aromanticism and the aro-spectrum. The white stripe represents the importance and validity of non-romantic forms of love, which includefriendship,platonic and aesthetic attraction,queerplatonic relationships, and family. The black and gray stripes represent the sexuality spectrum, which ranges fromaro-aces (aromantic asexuals) to aromanticallosexuals.[9][10]
Theasexual pride flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, gray, white, and purple from top to bottom.[11][12] The flag was created by anAsexual Visibility and Education Network user standup in August 2010, as part of a community effort to create and choose a flag.[13][14] The black stripe represents asexuality; the gray stripe representsgray-asexuals anddemisexuals; the white stripe representsallies; and the purple stripe represents community.[15][16]
Introduced on December 5, 1998,[17] thebisexual pride flag was designed byactivist Michael Page to represent and increase the visibility of bisexual people in the LGBTQ community and society as a whole. Page chose a combination ofPantone Matching System (PMS) colors magenta (pink), lavender (purple), and royal (blue).[17] The finished rectangular flag consists of a broad pink stripe at the top, a broad stripe in blue at the bottom, and a narrow purple stripe in the center.
Page described the meaning of the colors as, "The pink color represents sexual attraction to the same sex only (gay and lesbian), the blue represents sexual attraction to the opposite sex only (straight) and the resultant overlap color purple represents sexual attraction to both sexes (bi)."[17] He also described the flag's meaning in deeper terms, stating "The key to understanding the symbolism in the Bi Pride Flag is to know that the purple pixels of color blend unnoticeably into both the pink and blue, just as in the 'real world' where bi people blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities."[17][18]
The biangles, designed by Liz Nania, from which Michael Page stated that he took the colors and overlap for thebisexual pride flag
Various pride flags have been used to symbolize gay men. Rainbow flags have been used since 1978 to represent both gay men and, subsequently, the LGBTQ community as a whole. Since the 2010s, various designs have been proposed to specifically represent the gay male community, the one shown above being the most common today.
"unbroken and unornamented, symbolising wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities. We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how we want to be".[23][24][25]
No single design for alesbian-pride flag has been widely adopted.[26] However, many popular ones exist.
Thelabrys lesbian flag was created in 1999 by graphic designer Sean Campbell, and published in June 2000 in the Palm Springs edition of theGay and Lesbian Times Pride issue.[26][27] The design involves a labrys, a type of double-headed axe, superimposed on the invertedblack triangle, set against aviolet background. Among its functions, the labrys was associated as a weapon used by theAmazons ofmythology.[28][29] In the 1970s it was adopted as a symbol of empowerment by thelesbian feminist community.[30] Women considered asocial byNazi Germany for not conforming to theNazi ideal of a woman, which includedhomosexual females, were condemned toconcentration camps[31] and wore an invertedblack triangle badge to identify them.[32] Some lesbians reclaimed this symbol asgay men reclaimed thepink triangle (many lesbians also reclaimed the pink triangle although lesbians were not included inParagraph 175 of theGerman criminal code).[32] The color violet became associated with lesbians via the poetry ofSappho.[33]
Thelipstick lesbian flag was introduced by Natalie McCray in 2010 in theweblogThis Lesbian Life.[34][35] The design contains a red kiss in the left corner, superimposed on seven stripes consisting of six shades of red and pink colors and a white bar in the center.[36][37] The lipstick lesbian flag represents "homosexual women who have a more feminine gender expression", but has not been widely adopted.[26] Some lesbians are against it because it does not includebutch lesbians, while others have accused McCray of writingbiphobic, racist, andtransphobic comments on her blog.[38]
The "pink" lesbian flag was derived from the lipstick lesbian flag but with the kiss mark removed.[37] The pink flag attracted more use as a general lesbian pride flag.[39]
The "orange-pink" lesbian flag, modeled after the seven-band pink flag, was introduced onTumblr byblogger Emily Gwen in 2018.[40][41] The colors include dark orange for "gender non-conformity", orange for "independence", light orange for "community", white for "unique relationships to womanhood", pink for "serenity and peace", dusty pink for "love and sex", and dark rose for "femininity".[41] A five-stripes version was soon derived from the 2018 colors.[42]
Labrys lesbian flag created in 1999 by Sean Campbell[26]
Thelipstick lesbian flag was introduced in 2010 by Natalie McCray; this is a version with the kiss symbol changed.[35]
Pink lesbian flag with colors copied from the lipstick lesbian flag[39]
Orange-pink lesbian flag derived from the pink lesbian flag, circulated on social media in 2018, and the most popular lesbian flag in use today.[41]
Thenon-binary pride flag was created in 2014 by Kye Rowan.[44] Each stripe color represents different types of non-binary identities: yellow for people who identify outside of thegender binary, white for non-binary people with multiple genders, purple for those with a mixture of both male and female genders, and black foragender individuals.[45]
Thepansexual pride flag was introduced in October 2010 in a Tumblr blog ("Pansexual Pride Flag").[46][47] It has three horizontal bars that are pink, yellow and blue.[46][48][49][unreliable source?] "The pink represents being attracted to women, the blue being attracted to men, and the yellow for being attracted to everyone else";[46] such asnon-binary gender identities.[49][15][50][51]
Thetransgender pride flag was designed by transgender womanMonica Helms in 1999.[52] It was first publicly displayed at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, US, in 2000.[53] It was flown from a large public flagpole in San Francisco'sCastro District beginning November 19, 2012, in commemoration of theTransgender Day of Remembrance.[53] The flag represents the transgender community and consists of five horizontal stripes: two light blue, two pink, with a white stripe in the center. Helms described the meaning of the flag as follows:[54]
The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, thetraditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, thetraditional color for baby girls.[53] The white stripe is for people that are nonbinary, feel that they don't have a gender.[55][56] The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.[53]
Philadelphia became the first county government in the United States to raise the transgender pride flag in 2015. It was raised atCity Hall in honor of Philadelphia's 14th AnnualTrans Health Conference, and remained next to the US and City of Philadelphia flags for the entirety of the conference. Then-Mayor Michael Nutter gave a speech in honor of the trans community's acceptance in Philadelphia.[57]
Salt Lake City, Utah The Sego Belonging Flag, an official flag ofSalt Lake City, Utah, based on theProgress Pride flag.[109] It was adopted in 2025 in response to a new state law restricting the flying of that and other flags.[110]
The sequenceU+1F3F3🏳WAVING WHITE FLAG,U+FE0F️VARIATION SELECTOR-16,U+200DZERO WIDTH JOINER,U+1F308🌈RAINBOW produces a rainbow flag emoji 🏳️🌈, but adding more flags has been recommended against[122] and as of 2022, "the Emoji Subcommittee is no longer taking in any proposals for flags of any kind" and proposes to add a pink heart, a light blue heart, and a gray heart emoji to allow many pride flags (as well as sports teams and regional flags) to be represented as sequences of colored hearts.[123]
^Bilić, Bojan; Kajinić, Sanja (2016).Intersectionality and LGBT Activist Politics: Multiple Others in Croatia and Serbia. Springer. pp. 95–96.
^Decker, Julie (2014). "Asexual Community Insiders".The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality. Carrel Books, which is owned bySkyhorse Publishing. p. 101.ISBN978-1-63144-017-5.
^"The Asexuality Flag". Asexuality Archive. February 20, 2012.Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 26, 2021.
^"Gay Symbols Through the Ages".The Alyson Almanac: A Treasury of Information for the Gay and Lesbian Community. Boston, Massachusetts:Alyson Publications. 1989. pp. 99–100.ISBN0-932870-19-8.
^abcdefghiCampbell, Andy (2019).Queer X Design: 50 Years of Signs, Symbols, Banners, Logos, and Graphic Art of LGBTQ. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. p. 218-221.ISBN9780762467853.
^abcDavis, Chloe O. (2021).The Queens' English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases. Clarkson Potter. p. 86-87.[verification needed]
^ralatalo (September 20, 2021)."Flags of the LGBTIQ Community".OutRight Action International.Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2021.
^ab"Pride Flags".The Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. Retrieved2024-08-01.
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