LGBTQ+ Flags & Their Meanings

After Harvey Milk's assassination in November 1978, demand for the Pride flag was in high demand. To help ease manufacturing constraints, the hot pink stripe was removed, and Baker removed the turquoise stripe as a design choice. This variation of the original flag has remained the most popular Pride flag.

This flag is an evolution of the Philadelphia Pride flag that was created by Daniel Quaser in 2018. They used white, light pink, and light blue to symbolize the Trans* community as well as brown and black to represent communities of color. These two colors also serve as an acknowledgment to those who lost their lives during the HIV/AIDs crisis of the 1980s and 90s.

This flag is the current iteration of the Pride flag. It was created in 2021 by Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK. This flag updates the Progress Pride flag to include the intersex community.

This current version of the lesbian flag was created in 2018. The colors represent different levels of femininity: gender non-conformity (dark orange), independence (middle orange), community (light orange), unique relationships to womanhood (white), serenity and peace (light pink), love and sex (middle pink), and femininity (dark pink).

This is the second and current version of this flag. The colors of the flag are different shades of green and blue that represent different varying levels of masculinity.

This flag was created around 2010 by an anonymous tumblr user to bring awareness to the pansexual community. Pansexuality refers to individuals who possess the capacity for emotional, romantic, or sexual interest in individuals of all genders, though this attraction might not occur simultaneously, uniformly, or to identical extents. The pink stripe signifies attraction to women, the blue stripe signifies attraction to men, and the yellow stripe represents attraction encompassing those who exist between or beyond the confines of the gender binary.

The intersex flag was created in 2013 by Morgan Carpenter, the co-chair of Intersex Human Rights Australia. Intersex individuals are those born with a variety of sex characteristics or reproductive organs that do not fit in the binary of male or female. Yellow and purple are viewed as gender-neutral colors while the circle represents wholeness and completeness, and the potentialities of intersex individuals.

This flag was created in 2014 by Kye Rowan to represent non-binary folks. Non-binary is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity doesn’t sit comfortably with ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ Non-binary identities are varied and can include people who identify with some aspects of binary identities while others reject them entirely. Yellow signifies something on its own or people who identify outside of the cisgender binary of male or female. A cisgender person would be a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. White, a color that consists of all colors mixed, stands for multi-gendered people. Purple, like the lavender color in the genderqueer flag, represents people who identify as a blending of male and female genders. Finally, black (the absence of color) signifies those who are agender, who feel they do not have a gender.

In 2014, the Agender Pride Flag was introduced to symbolize individuals who possess an indiscernible gender, identify as gender-neutral, or experience a lack of gender altogether. The flag's black and white stripes symbolize the concept of gender absence, while the gray stripes denote those who identify as partially genderless. The presence of a green stripe on the flag is intended to represent non-binary individuals.

In 2011, Marilyn Roxie designed the Genderqueer Pride Flag to embody individuals who resist the fixed confines of gender classifications. Those identifying as genderqueer might view themselves as a combination of both genders, neither gender nor existing outside the established binary framework. The presence of a lavender stripe on the flag symbolizes androgyny and diverse queer identities, while the white stripe signifies agender individuals. Additionally, the green stripe represents those who exist beyond the traditional binary gender spectrum.

In 2013, JJ Poole introduced the Genderfluid Pride Flag as a means of providing recognition to individuals whose gender identity and/or expression undergoes variations across different periods and situations. Within this flag's design, each hue corresponds to a distinct facet of the Genderfluid community: pink signifies femininity, blue represents masculinity, white symbolizes gender absence, and black encompasses all genders. Moreover, the presence of a purple stripe denotes a harmonious blend of both masculinity and femininity.

Debuting at San Francisco Pride in 2019 and garnering significant attention in 2020 amidst the Black Lives Matter Protests, the Queer People of Color Flag's creator and initial creation date remain unidentified. This flag serves as a representation of the intricate interconnection between the quests for racial and queer equality. Furthermore, it pays homage to the numerous individuals within the QPOC community who have dedicated their lives to advocating for parity in both the realms of queer and racial equity.

The first polyamory flag was created in 1995. Each color represents a different aspect of polyamory. Blue stands for openness and honesty of everyone involved, red represents love and passion, while black stands for solidarity with those who must hide their polyamorous relationships. The Pi sign in the middle signifies the infinite options of partners available to polyamorous people. The flag was redesigned in 2016, 2019, 2020, and most recently in 2022.

Read more on the history of these flags here.

The straight ally flag was created by an unknown individual and gained popularity in the early 2000s. The letter ‘A’ means ally. The black and white stripes represent the straight flag. The rainbow colors in the letter ‘A’ are for the LGBT community.