The year is 1974. Gay rights activist Harvey Milk meets an artist named Gilbert Baker in San Francisco. Milk challenges Baker to create a symbol for the queer community, something new and fresh. The symbol for the gay pride movement at the time, the pink triangle, had Nazi origins – it was a way to “mark” homosexuals – and there was a yearning in the community for something more positive.

Baker gave us a rainbow flag, eight colors at first, in which each stripe represented a different virtue: sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic, serenity, and spirit. “I liked the idea that each color would represent an element of everyone's life,” he told NBC in a 2016 interview. The flag was first flown at San Francisco Pride in 1978, during Milk’s first term as City Supervisor.

Five months later, Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone are assassinated. The double murder, for which perpetrator Dan White received just seven years in prison, shocked the world. Milk became a martyr for the queer community, and demand for the rainbow flag subsequently exploded. In the face of this interest, Gilbert Baker revised the Pride flag twice, to seven colors and then again down to six, trimming off the virtues of sex and magic to involve fewer dyes and make distribution easier to distribute.

The LGBTQ+ community uses many different pride flags to represent the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities. And because queer identity is often more covert than race or gender, the act of showing one’s pride is activist in itself.

Pride flags are a vehicle for queer people to assert personal expression, exploration, and courage in the face of oppression. For allies, knowing the traditional pride flag and its various derivative flags is a way to understand and support LGBTQ+ friends and family.

The History of LGBTQ+ Pride Flags

While there are actually more than a dozen LGBTQ+ flags as of this writing, it all began with a single rainbow flag almost 50 years ago.

Rainbow Flag, Philadelphia Pride Flag, Progress Pride Flag

The six-color rainbow flag is the most iconic and represents the entire LGBTQ+ community. Its red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple stripes reflect the community's diversity. The rainbow flag caught on and spread worldwide as a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride.

More pride flags followed in the 1990s and 2000s as parts of the expanding LGBTQ+ community created their own emblems. And in 2010, the Philadelphia pride flag added black and brown stripes to the rainbow to include people of color. Each new flag gave visibility and voice to identities within the broader community.

Sexual Orientation and Romantic Orientation Flags

Lesbian Flags

The word lesbian describes a woman who experiences romantic and/or sexual attraction to women.

There are several lesbian flags in circulation. Designer Sean Campbell created a flag in 1999 that featured the Labrys, a weapon from Greek mythology that feminists used as a symbol of empowerment in the 1970s. A “lipstick lesbian” flag with a lipstick imprint was introduced in 2010, but was criticized for excluding butch lesbians and prioritizing certain feminine identities over others.

Tumblr blogger Emily Gwen introduced a seven-stripe flag in 2018, which later was streamlined down to five stripes.

Bisexual Flag

The word bisexual describes a person who experiences romantic and/or sexual attraction to people of more than one gender.

Michael Page designed the bisexual pride flag, and it debuted in 1998. At a glance, it looks like the blue and pink colors represent masculine and feminine identities, but this is untrue. The bisexual flag has a pink stripe at top, a blue stripe at bottom, and a purple stripe in between them. The pink stripe stands for attraction to the same gender, the blue stripe for attraction to other genders, and the purple stripe for attraction across the gender spectrum.

The purple stripe is intentionally smaller than the pink and blue stripes. This represents bisexuals’ underlying existence in both gay and straight worlds.

Pansexual Flag

The word pansexual describes a person who experiences romantic and/or sexual attraction to individuals regardless of their gender identity.

The pansexual flag was created in 2010 by a user named Jasper on Tumblr, who developed the flag anonymously and later posted a story behind its creation. In the post, they wrote “Made sure to say it was just an idea, but a lot of pansexuals really liked it and embraced it. It's hard to call it an "official" flag when pansexuality is still not really understood in the mainstream and oftentimes in LG(BTQ) spaces, but it's taken off.”

The pansexual pride flag has a pink stripe, yellow stripe, and blue stripe. Pink represents attraction to femininity, blue represents masculinity, and yellow represents nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people. The pansexual flag looks similar to the bisexual flag, but has a brighter yellow instead of purple.

Polyamory Flag

The word polyamory describes the practice of engaging in multiple romantic and/or sexual relationships simultaneously with the knowledge and consent of all partners involved.

The polyamory flag was created in 1995 by Jim Evans, who saw the power of symbolism in LGBTQ+ flags and what they had done for the gay community, and wanted to create something similar for the polyamorous community. The flag features the Greek letter pi to represent the first letter of poly.

Asexual Flag (Ace Flag)

The word asexual describes a person who experiences little to no sexual attraction to others.

The asexual flag was created in 2010 by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), which was founded in 2001 and became a 501(c)4 nonprofit in 2022. The flag has four stripes.

Earlier iterations of this flag used a triangle as a symbol, but those iterations were criticized because the triangle is also AVEN’s logo. The community wanted a flag that wasn’t directly linked to a website. Still, AVEN is considered responsible for platforming the nuanced discussions that have led to more asexual awareness, as well as the development of other nuanced flags representing different permutations of both sexual and romantic attraction.

Some of those identities (and those corresponding flags) include:

Grayasexual Flag (Gray-asexual, Gray-sexual)

The word grayasexual describes a person who experiences sexual attraction rarely, with low intensity, or under specific circumstances that place them on the spectrum between asexual and sexual. The current grayasexual flag (graysexual pride flag) was uploaded to Wikimedia in 2013 by Milith Rusignuolo.

Demisexual Flag

The word demisexual describes a person who only experiences sexual attraction after forming a strong emotional connection with someone. This is sometimes referred to as secondary sexual attraction, as opposed to primary sexual attraction, in which attraction is established based on looks, sound, smell, taste or touch alone.

It’s uncertain when the demisexual flag was created, but it was likely after 2010. Tinder added demisexual as an orientation option in its app in 2019.

Aromantic Flag

The word aromantic describes a person who experiences little to no romantic attraction to others. Aromanticism dates as far back as 1879, when a German writer named Karl Heinrich Ulrichs created the split attraction model to describe the difference between sexual and romantic attraction. If a person does experience romantic attraction, they’re considered alloromantic, and this same nomenclature applies to sexual attraction.

The current aromantic flag is attributed to Cameron Whimsy on tumblr, circa 2014.

Grayaromantic Flag (Gray-aromantic, Grayromantic)

The word grayaromantic describes a person who experiences romantic attraction rarely, with low intensity, or under specific circumstances that place them on the spectrum between aromantic and romantic. The flag was uploaded to tumblr in 2014 by a since-deactivated user named lesbiandoe.

Demiromantic Flag

The word demiromantic describes a person who only experiences romantic attraction after forming a strong emotional connection with someone. This flag also developed in conversations on tumblr, and is believed to have been derived from the demisexual flag to provide parallelism.

Aroace Flag (Aro-ace)

The word aroace describes a person who is both aromantic and asexual, experiencing little to no romantic or sexual attraction to others. The flag was created in 2018, and abandons the green and purple tones used in the other asexual and aromantic spectrum flags, arguing that this represents " the experiences of aroaces who don’t split their attraction in mind."

There are additional variants of this flag.

Gender Identity and Expression Flags

Gender identity and expression flags recognize expressions that fall outside the gender binary.

Transgender Flag

The word transgender describes a person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

The transgender pride flag (sometimes called trans flag) was created in 1999 by Sean Campbell. It features light blue and pink stripes separated by a white stripe. The blue stands for male, pink for female, and white for nonbinary and transitioning people. The colors also represent the traditional male and female colors on opposite sides to show crossing gender boundaries.

Notably, the transgender flag and rainbow flag are the two LGBTQ flags recognized in Unicode emoji, the system used for labeling emojis worldwide. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Genderqueer Flag

The word genderqueer describes a person whose gender identity or expression falls outside of, or encompasses elements from both, the traditional masculine and feminine categories. The genderqueer pride flag was designed in 2011 by Marilyn Roxie, a genderqueer writer and advocate.

Genderfluid Flag

The word genderfluid describes a person whose gender identity shifts or changes over time. The key difference between genderqueer and genderfluid is that genderfluid emphasizes a feeling of fluidity, and that one’s sense of gender is not necessarily static.

The genderfluid pride flag was created in 2012 by JJ Poole. In its five stripes, the pink and blue outer stripes represent feminine and masculine gender expression. The central purple stripe represents both genders, white represents all genders, and black represents the absence of gender.

Intersex Flag

The word intersex describes a person born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit typical definitions of male or female.

The intersex pride flag was created in 2013 by Morgan Carpenter and Intersex Human Rights Australia. The organization says the flag “is not derivative, but is yet firmly grounded in meaning,” and that the flag is available for “by any intersex person or organization who wishes to use it, in a human rights affirming community context.”

Nonbinary Flag

The word nonbinary describes a gender identity that falls outside the traditional male-female binary.

The nonbinary pride flag was created by 17-year-old Kyle Rowan in 2014. The feeling was that the genderqueer flag didn’t accurately describe the lived experience of nonbinary people. Nonbinary and genderqueer are sometimes used interchangeably. Nonbinary is more focused on not identifying as 100% male or 100% female, whereas genderqueer is a more general term.

Additional Flags

Leather Pride Flag

The leather pride flag was created in 1989 to celebrate leather subculture, and debuted at the International Mr. Leather competition that year. It’s now often used to represent kink, fetish, and BDSM subculture. Tony DeBlase designed the flag, and said the colors of the stripes have no particular meaning. He expected blowback, but the community accepted the flag as-is, and it has gone largely unchanged. DeBlase passed away in 2000.

Related: The Power of Physique Pictorial

Bear Pride Flag

The bear pride flag began as someone’s senior project in college – yes, really!

Craig Byrnes created the bear flag in 1995 as part of a school project. Byrnes had experience with the bear community at the time, and wanted to include examples of what could be a bear flag, based on his research. Four variations were produced, and this design by Paul Witzkoske was selected as the winner. The flag closely mirrors the design of the leather pride flag, and the different stripes are intended to represent different furs, a metaphor for acceptance and inclusivity.

Two-Spirit Flag

Indigenous culture has long had a different approach to gender and spirituality. In 1990, Elder Myra Laramee introduced the two-spirit flag as an expression of this two-spirit identity within queer culture.

Feather Pride Flag and Drag Pride Flag

The feather pride flag, also known as the drag pride flag, was introduced in 1999 by Sean Campbell, who also designed the trans pride flag and bisexual flag, among others. The flag features a phoenix, which symbolizes both rebirth and passion, which drag artists leverage to empower the community.

A newer drag pride flag was created in 2016 at the Austin International Drag Foundation by Veranda L’Ni.

Why Pride Flags Matter

Pride flags do more than liven up parades and festivals. For many LGBTQ+ people, the flags are a way to explore one’s own identity and subsequently find community.

Flying a particular pride flag shows the world “this is who I am.” It invites others to learn what that identity means. The flags spark conversations and awareness. That visibility is key for an often-hidden minority group.

Flags also create safety and inclusion. An LGBTQ+ teen might feel alone or out of place. But seeing their flag tells them they’re welcome. Displaying pride flags in schools, workplaces, and businesses sends a message of acceptance and support.

Understanding these different flags empowers us to stand with LGBTQ+ loved ones. Knowing the flags helps allies speak up against discrimination and prejudice facing that group. LGBTQ+ pride flags unite and strengthen our whole community. ⬥