“Flags as symbols facilitate sociality between strangers, inviting community between people who may never actually meet,” Elliott Tilleczek, a Ph.D. They represent what the historian Benedict Anderson called “imagined communities”-self-constituted entities, united less by shared experiences than by shared beliefs in shared experiences. And this year brought another version from Intersex Equality Rights UK, featuring a yellow triangle and purple circle to represent the intersex community, or people born with a reproductive anatomy that doesn’t fit typical male or female definitions.įlags are political symbols, borrowed from the vocabulary of nationalism, with similar overtones of citizenship, belonging, borders. One year later, the Oregon-based graphic designer Daniel Quasar added the trans flag’s stripes as a horizontal chevron to make the Progress Pride Flag. In 2017, Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs introduced black and brown stripes to the Pride flag to recognize queer and trans people of color. When I was young and newly out of the closet, around 2013, I saw LGBTQ flags for every community imaginable online, including esoteric variants, such as the green, black, white, and grey aromantic flag, and a pale pink and yellow flag for slim, hairless 20-something twinks. The now-familiar six-stripe flag is actually a redesign. Later that year, though, the flag lost its pink stripe because of fabric unavailability at the local manufacturer, and turquoise fell off the year after for the same reason. That earliest iteration included pink and turquoise stripes, symbolizing sex and art, respectively-parts of queer life that the designers thought were worth fighting for. And, it was redesigned by Valentino Vecchietti.Since its first flight at 1978’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, the rainbow flag has evolved multiple times. Source: Even this year the Rainbow flag was updated yet again to ensure inclusivity. The new design incorporates intersex people into the movement.
The pink represented femininity, blue represented masculinity and white represented non binary. Source: In 2018, Daniel Quasar added the colors of the transgender cause into the flag- blue, white and pink. This was created in response to growing issues around racism and intersectionality. For example, in June 2017, two new colours were added to the 6-strip coloured flag- black and brown by Amber Hikes. Source: Though there are more versions of the flag that we've been introduced to and should know about. This is the most commonly recognised flag that has been around for almost 42 years. Source: Red (Life), Orange (Healing), Yellow (Sunlight), Green (Nature), Blue (Serenity), Violet (Spirit). And, each of the colours represented something. Source: Later, the rainbow flag comprised of 6 vibrant colours- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. This flag had two colours, Pink and Violet, which were later dropped out in 1998 by Baker himself for the purpose of functionality. He dyed and sewed the bands together himself. In case you didn't know, the first LGBT flag was a 8-strip flag, designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978.