Learn about Pride flag history just in time for Pride Month festivities!|||||||||||||||||||||

Your guide to Pride Flags and their significance

Tons of people view the rainbow flag to represent the LGBTQ community, but it's not the only flag that people in the community connect with. These unique and colorful banners represent various identities within the community. With Pride Month in full swing, it's helpful to understand all of the pride flags history and significance!

Gilbert Baker Pride Flag

In 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, asked artist Gilbert Baker to create a Pride flag.

The colors have the following meanings: pink represents sex while red is for life. Meanwhile orange symbolizes healing, yellow is for sunlight and green represents nature. Next, turquoise equals magic, blue is for harmony and violet means spirit.

1978-1999 Pride Flag

Following Harvey's assassination in 1978, demand for the flag increase. Gilbert, however, found the pink color hard to come by, so he opted to decrease the number of colors on the flag to seven in order to keep up with the demand.

Traditional Flag

Used to symbolize the overall LGBTQ+ community, it is commonly seen banners throughout Pride Month.

Philidelphia's People of Color Inclusive Flag

Created in 2017 this banner gives major representation to black and brown people in the LGBTQ+ community and the unique challenges they face. 

"Progress" Pride Flag

Of all the flags, the Progress Pride flag's history is quite young. In 2018, Daniel Quasar created the flag in response to Philly's updated pride flag. It combines the colors and stripes from Philly's version of the pride flag and the colors of the transgender pride flag.

On the flag's Kickstarter, Quasar says, "When the Pride flag was recreated in the last year to include both black/brown stripes as well as the trans stripes included this year, I wanted to see if there could be more emphasis on the design of the flag to give it more meaning."

Bisexual Flag

For many, it's seen as attraction to both men and women. Others use it to describe attraction to more than one gender, but not all genders. Some even describe it as attraction to the gender you identify as and at least one other gender.

Pansexual Flag

it's unclear who actually created this flag, but ever since it started showing up online in 2010, it's become a symbol of attraction to all genders.

Asexual Flag

Inspired by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network logo, it represents many ace identities, including graysexuals, the fluid area between sexuals and asexuals, and demisexuals.

Lesbian Flag

It was created by Natalie McCray and the different shades of red and pink are said to represent different shades of lipstick. However, in 2018 it was thought to exclude many idenities. As a result, the new flag with orange stripes was proposed to include more indivduals.

Transgender Flag

According to Pride, transgender woman Monica Helms designed the flag in 1999. Pride quotes her saying, "The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it will always be correct. This symbolizes us trying to find correctness in our own lives."

“The light blue is the traditional color for baby boys, pink is for girls, and the white in the middle is for those who are transitioning. Those who feel they have a neutral gender or no gender, and those who are intersexed,” Helms noted.

Queer People of Color Flag

The origins of this flag are unknown, but it represents solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the intersection of the queer and Black communities. It gained notoriety last year during the height of the BLM movement.

Gender Fluid Flag

People who are genderfluid don't identify with one gender, but rather their gender identity shifts between male, female, or somewhere else on the spectrum. How often someone's identity shifts depends on the individual.

The flag was created by JJ Poole in 2012 according to OutRight Action International.

Genderqueer Flag

Meanwhile, Marilyn Roxie created the genderqueer flag that highlights androgyny with lavender, agender identities with white, and nonbinary people with green. Some people refer to it as a nonbinary flag if they feel queer is a slur.

Intersex Flag

Designed in 2013 by the organization Intersex International Australia, this flag intentionally features non-gendered colors and celebrate "living outside the binary."

Polysexual Flag

Unlike pansexuality, polysexuality is the attraction to multiple genders but not all. The pink represents attraction to females; the blue for males. The green is for an attraction to those who don't conform to either gender.

Demisexual Flag

Since demisexuality exists on the asexual spectrum, the colors are similar to the asexual flag. However, these pride flags have their own unique history and design. This represents people who don't experience sexual attraction unless they have an emotional connection with their partners.

Agender Flag

While genderqueer people bend the rules of gender, agender people reject a gender completely. For their flag, the black and white stripes represent the absence of gender, while green, the inverse of the gender-heavy purple, represents nonbinary genders.

Aromatic Flag

Someone who is aromatic can have little or no romantic attraction to others. As a result, the history of these pride flags are green, black, and white colors.

Non Binary Flag

OutRight Action International says this nonbinary flag was created in 2014 by Kye Rowan. As a result, it is for non-binary people who didn't feel included in the genderqueer flag. The term "queer" has also been used as a slur against the LGBT community, although many people have reclaimed the term.

Yellow represents genders outside of the gender binary while white symbolizes people who identify with many or all genders. Additionally, purple represents genders that are a combination of male and female, and black identifies people who are agender.

Polyamory Flag

Those who identify as polyamorous can have infinite partners. As a result, the pi symbol is the perfect symbol for the polyamory flag. Meanwhile, its golden color represents emotional connection, instead of sexual love.

Straight Ally Flag

Essentially, this flag represents those who may not identify as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but they support he combination of the black and white stripes and the rainbow represent the allies' support of the LGBTQ+ community.


Also, make sure to join Drag Society today for amazing celebrity queen curations!

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.