Pride Flags 101: Your Guide To What Each One Represents In The LGBTQ+ Community

The rainbow Pride flag has been a bright and bold symbol of the LGBTQ+ movement for over 40 years. In 1978, Harvey Milk commissioned artist Gilbert Baker to create a symbol of gay pride, and the original Pride flag was born. (And in case you didn't know, the traditional rainbow flag most people see and use today is actually the second iteration of the Pride flag and not the original!)

As LGBTQ+ Pride has moved to be more inclusive throughout the years, you've probably seen other variations of the famous flag. Many people may not realize just how many individual flags exist to represent all of the multifaceted elements of the LGBTQ+ Umbrella. From flags for specific sexual orientations to flags for gender expression and intersectionality, there are actually 22 flags across four categories (and, yes, it can be difficult to remember them all). Whether you're looking to celebrate Pride in your own way or are already preparing for your local Pride parade there is no better time to brush-up on your flag knowledge. Here's your guide to the different LGBTQ+ Pride flags you might find during your Pride celebrations this year.

The original Pride flag! You might be surprised to see some extra colors compared the more common rainbow flag you're used to seeing. This design is the creation of Gilbert Baker, a famous artist and activist 

In 1978, San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay U.S. politician, commissioned Baker to design the flag for the annual Gay Freedom Day event in the city. Baker then appointed a team of volunteers to help with the sewing and coloring process to build the original massive 20-yard-long rainbow flag that debuted at the parade on June 25, 1978.

In his memoir "Rainbow Warrior," Baker shared that the rainbow design was partially inspired by his experiences in the San Fransisco dance scene. "Dance fused us, magical and cleansing. We were all in a swirl of color and light. It was like a rainbow," he wrote. The artist also wanted each color to symbolize a different element of the LGBTQ+ identity, with hot pink representing sex, red representing life, orange representing healing, yellow representing sunlight, green representing nature, turquoise representing magic and art, indigo representing serenity, and purple representing the spirit of all LGBTQ+ people. A smaller version of the original flag went on display at the Museum of Modern Art following the legalization of gay marriage in the U.S.

Building on the momentum created by the Philadelphia Pride Flag, artist Daniel Quaser added a white, pink, and light blue stripe to the flag less than a year later to form what is called the Progress Pride Flag. These new additions are not only intended to represent the Trans community, they also serve as a way to call for a more inclusive society. Quaser also reimagined the black stripe from the Philadelphia Pride Flag to not only represent Black members of the community, but also as a means to honor those who died during the HIV/AIDS crisis.

This flag was created in 2015 as a way to represent all different aspects of queerness. Despite being less well-known than other Pride flags, it is especially meaningful as the word queer becomes more celebrated and used in everyday life. The two different shades of pink stripes and blue stripes next to each other represent same-gender attraction, while the orange and green stripes represent non-binary and gender non-confirming members of the community. The black and white stripes represent asexual, aromantic, and agender spectrum individuals.

The original version of the gay men's pride flag had only green, blue, and white, which was seen as an exclusionary to the trans community as it focused primarily on cisgender gay men. In order to be more trans-inclusive, this second version was made with added different stripes of blue and green. Fun fact, this flag was created by a Tumblr user: @gayflagblog.

Though many people may be just learning about polyamory thanks to the internet, people have been openly identifying as polyamorous, or 'poly' for short for more than 50 years. The community consists of those who have consenting relationships with more than one person.

In 1995, Jim Evans created a flag to represent that unique experience. Each color of the Polyamory flag represents a different aspect of the orientation. Blue represents the openness and honesty, red represents love and passion, and black represents solidarity for those who must hide their polyamorous relationships. A noticeable quality that separates this flag from other Pride flags is the large Pi sign in the middle. It is meant to represent the infinite options available to polyamorous people.

Asexual people, or Aces, do not experience sexual attractions to anyone, but within the community, there is a spectrum. Some asexual people still seek out romantic relationships and experience romantic feelings. In 2010, The Asexual Visibility and Education Network hosted an online contest looking for a flag that could honor this specific identity. The colors represent asexuality (black), gray-asexuality and demisexuality (gray), non-asexual allies (white), and community (purple).

Not to be confused with pansexual individuals, who are attracted to people of all genders and identities, people who are polysexual experience attraction to some genders, though not all. Some sex therapists and human sexuality researchers have argued it is a term for those who are attracted to three or more genders, though not all polysexual individuals may identify with this definition. 

This flag was introduced Tumblr in 2012 to honor people who are attracted to multiple genders that may not identify with the experience of being pan or bisexual. The blue stripe represents a polysexual person's attraction to men, the pink represents their attraction to women, and the green represents their attraction to those who exist outside of the gender binary. 

Genderqueer people do not conform to gender categories. They can view themselves as both male and female, neither male nor female, or as existing outside of the binary. Created by Marilyn Roxie in 2011, this flag honors the community. Within the flag, the purple represents androgyny, the white represents agender (not having a gender), and the green represents those who exist outside of the gender binary altogether.

JJ Poole (who identifies as agender and pansexual) created this flag in 2013 to honor people who don't have a fixed gender. Genderfluid people experience gender identity and/or expression changes depending on specific times and circumstances. Pink represents femininity, blue represents masculinity, white represents the lack of gender, black represents all genders, and purple represents the combination of femininity and masculinity.

Although some agender individuals may identify as nonbinary, the terms are not interchangeable. Nonbinary can encompass people who identify with a gender outside of the cis male-female binary, whereas agender typically identify as gender neutral or having no gender at all. Created by New York-based artist and activist Salem Fontana in 2014, this flag first appeared on Tumblr in order to represent Agender individuals. 

The black and white represents the absence of gender, the gray represents semi-genderless people, and the green represents non-binary people. This flag was designed to be reversible (like the Transgender Pride flag) so that it can be hung in either direction.

Just like the Bigender flag, the details, year, and creator of the Demigender flag are unknown. The flag was created to represent Demigender people who have an attachment (but not necessarily a full connection) to any particular gender identity. For some, this can also mean a lack of connection or attachment to the concept of gender itself.

Two-spirit is an umbrella term intended to describe Indigenous Americans who fulfill or exist outside the traditional western notions of male and female gender binary. The term can have different meanings depending on the region. Being two-spirit can describe either a dual sexual, gender, or spiritual identity (or a combination of any/all of these identities) so it's important to emphasize that the term is not synonymous with the Indigenous and Native gay communities. On the flag, the two feathers represent masculine and feminine identities, while the circle behind them represents a kind of unification of those genders into a separate identity altogether.