HISTORY OF THE PRIDE FLAG

LGBT+ Pride Flag

THE HISTORY OF THE

In 2018, graphic designer Daniel Quasar added a chevron comprised of five colors to the classic Pride flag to emphasize inclusion and progression. This flag is known as the Progress Pride Flag. This flag includes black and brown stripes to represent the more marginalized LGBTQ+ communities of color, as well as the pink, light blue, and white colors of the Transgender Pride Flag. The Progress Pride Flag

As Baker said in an interview of the flag, “Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’” Some of the various flags used by different groups within the LGBTQ+ community

Baker chose eight colors for the stripes of the original flag: hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.

In 1978, openly gay artist and drag queen Gilbert Baker designed the first rainbow flag. Baker said later that it was Harvey Milk who urged him to create a symbol of pride for the LGBTQ+ community. Baker chose a flag for the symbol of LGBTQ+ pride because he saw flags as a powerful symbol of pride.

The rainbow-colored Pride flag is proudly displayed every year at Pride and throughout the year to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. But how did the rainbow flag become a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride?

The first versions of the Pride flag were flown for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade in 1978. Baker made them by hand with a team of volunteers, but then wanted to mass-produce them so more people could display the flag. Unfortunately, due to production issues, the hot pink and turquoise stripes were removed, and the indigo was replaced with a regular blue color. This is how we got the contemporary Pride flag with six stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.