Flying with Pride: A colorful guide to LGBTQ+ flags

The Pride flag represents the joy of an entire community, but there’s a Rolodex of LGBTQ+ flags you can wave to show support. 

As queer people, we don’t take our right to exist lightly, but we certainly have fun with it and appreciate options. Still, you might not have expected there are over 30 variations of queer flags beyond the rainbow, including a selection of umbrella Pride flags and individualized flags representing different sexual orientations, gender identities, and intersectionalities.

There might never be enough flag variations to embody every unique marginalized experience. And that’s OK; that’s why all queerness is welcomed under the colors of the rainbow. We’ll keep listening to your voices and adding to the list. 

Let’s celebrate all the flags you can stake at the top of your gender and sexual liberation. 

Agender Pride Flag

An important factor in sexual liberation is the freedom of gender labels for people who don’t identify with any. The Agender Pride Flag validates queer people identifying with an unidentifiable gender, gender neutral, or having no gender. The black and white stripes signify the absence of gender, while the gray stripes represent semi-genderless people. The green stripe symbolizes non-binary people. 

Asexual Pride Flag

Sexuality can be expressed in various ways, so the Asexual Pride Flag came to fruition following a 2010 contest by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. Black represents asexuality; gray signifies gray-asexuality; interestingly enough, white stands for non-asexual partners and allies. So that must be why purple was used for the community!

Bisexual Pride Flag

Of course, every letter deserves a seat at the LGBTQ+ table, and so in 1998, bisexual activist Michael Page brought awareness to his community with the Bisexual Pride Flag. The purple in between the blue and the pink celebrates attraction to both genders.

Gay Pride Flag

The original Pride flag had hot pink and turquoise in its rainbow. We know! It sounds even gayer, but manufacturing issues caused the removal of the hot pink, which made designer Gilbert Baker decide to remove the turquoise. Thus, the rainbow Pride flag came into existence and it’s still the primary face of the movement 40 years later, as far as flags are concerned! 

Gender Fluid Pride Flag

The spectrum of queerness isn’t set in stone, so in 2013, JJ Poole conjured the Gender Fluid Pride Flag to honor people whose gender identity or expression fluctuates. He used pink for femininity, blue for masculinity, white for the lack of gender, black for all genders, and the purple stripe to echo people falling in between pink and blue. 

Gilbert Baker Pride Flag

You could call this flag the birth of the queer rainbow. The Gilbert Baker Pride Flag was the first of its kind, created in 1978 to symbolize gay pride. It was done by the American designer upon the request of political icon Harvey Milk to unite the community. Spoiler alert: visibility works. 

Femboy Pride Flag

Boys with feminine characteristics need love, too! And so, the Femboy Pride Flag was created as further indication that queer flags can be used to validate any queer experience, not just gender or sexuality. The original version of the Femboy Pride Flag consist of seven stripes with blue in the center and a gradient if white to pink stripes on the edges to represent femininity.

Intersex Pride Flag

People who are born with differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy deserve to be seen, and so the Intersex Pride Flag was introduced in 2013 by the co-chair of Intersex Human Rights Australia, Morgan Carpenter. The Intersex Pride Flag consists of a solid yellow background with the outline of a purple circle in the center.

Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

The latest rendition of the Progress Pride Flag happened in 2021 with the addition of the intersex community, designed by Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK. This take adds the yellow background and purple circle of the Intersex Pride Flag into the white part of the chevron of the Progress Pride Flag.

Lesbian Pride Flag 

You’ll find a medley of iterations for the Lesbian Pride Flag (also known as the WLW Pride Flag), and they’re all correct. Do you, lesbians! But this 2018’s rendition is the most popular, fusing shades of pink, orange, and red to ignite the untamable fire of lesbian femininity. 

Non-Binary Pride Flag

Gender-nonconforming and non-binary folks finally got a shout-out in 2014 when the Non-Binary Pride Flag was created to celebrate living outside the binary. The yellow stripe represents genders that don’t exist within the binary, the white stripe echoes people with multiple or all genders, the purple stripe embodies individuals falling in between, and the black stripe signifies people with no gender. 

Pansexual Pride Flag

Who says gender needs to have anything to do with falling in love? The Pansexual Pride Flag was created around 2010 to remind people gender can be just a construct when it comes to attraction and chemistry. The addition of yellow in between the traditionally feminine and masculine pink and blue stripes signifies individuals outside of the binary. 

Philadelphia Pride Flag

Queer people of color have often needed to fight for visibility within their own LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the Philadelphia City Council commissioned the Philadelphia Pride Flag to demonstrate solidarity, adding black and brown stripes to the classic rainbow flag. It represents the pivotal role of Black folks in the equal rights movement.

Pride of Africa Flag

The Pride of Africa Foundation debuted the first pan-African LGBTQ+ flag at Johannesburg Pride in 2019. The inspiration was a melting pot of every African country’s flag. How’s that for queer patriotism?

Progress Pride Flag

Artist Daniel Quasar built on Philadelphia Pride Flag’s empowerment in 2018 and added a white, pink, and light blue stripe to represent the Trans community. He shifted the design for these identities to cut into the rainbow of queerness. However, he used the black stripe to represent every person lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. You know it’s an awesome flag when it angers JK Rowling.

Transgender Pride Flag

Phoenix Pride debuted the Transgender Pride Flag in 2000, which was created by US Navy Veteran and transgender activist Monica Helms. She channeled the traditional colors for gender and put white in the middle to represent individuals in transition. 

Trixic Pride Flag 

The term “Trixic” refers to a non-binary person attracted to women, distinguishing them from being a lesbian or straight. There wasn’t a widely adopted identity for trixic people until 2017 when it was coined by the Tumbler community. As you can expect, a flag was created.

Two-Spirit Pride Flag

The Two-Spirit Flag embodies the two-spirit identity of many Native Americans, which steps outside the binaries of gender. Femininity and Masculinity are represented through feathers, and the circle merges both genders into a separate identity. Of course, the rainbow is a tribute to queerness.

Queer People of Color Pride Flag

Although the Queer People of Color Pride Flag first appeared at San Francisco Pride in 2019, the Black Lives Matter movement helped bring it to the limelight. Origin details are unknown, but it is a torch for the intersection of race and queerness. 

Celebrating all LGBTQ+ pride flags

LGBTQ+ pride flags are a powerful symbol of the diversity, love, acceptance, and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community. Each flag not only serves as a representation of someone’s journey but also as a reminder that we must continue to fight for the rights and safety of all members of society. As our language and understanding of gender and sexuality evolve, so too will the various flags that represent them.

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