While LGBTQ may represent different communities, it is not the only flag that others connect with. You may have come across the six-colored rainbow that represents the LGBTQ community but over the years many have added to the flag to represent themselves. Different groups, genders, and identities have brought down their own flags to distinguish themselves and spread a deeper awareness of their life.
This pride month may see lesser rallies and more virtual celebration, there is still a lot of things you can do to educate yourself about the community.
Table of Contents
13 LGBTQ Flags – All LGBTQ Flags & What They Stand For
Rainbow Pride Flag
The most commonly known flag of the LGBTQ community is the rainbow flag. Created by gay activist Gilbert Baker in the 1970s, each color has a different meaning. Gilbert in his memoir wrote that the people of the queer community needed to feel positive and loved, and the colors of the flag represent exactly that. Gilbert Baker was the first openly gay elected official in California. Each color holds different symbolization.
Pink: Sex
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Turquoise: Magic
Blue: Harmony
Violet: Spirit
Bisexual Pride Flag
Bisexuality is an attraction toward both males and females, or to more than one sex or gender. The bisexual flag was created by Michael Page in 1998. Being an activist, his main goal was to create a symbol for bisexual people to be seen. He felt the bisexual community deserved their own identity and flag as the rainbow flag was not enough. Each of the colors represents a kind of attraction apt for the community.
Pink (or magenta): Same-sex attraction
(Royal) blue: Opposite-sex attraction
Purple (lavender): Attraction to both sexes.
Pansexual Pride Flag
While little is known about the person who created the pansexual flag, it first started appearing in 2010. The flag was created to differentiate pansexuals from bisexuals. The world pan generally symbolizes attraction to more than two genders. The three colors represent attraction to different genders.
Pink: Attraction to women
Yellow: Attraction to all other genders
Blue: Attraction to men
Lesbian Pride Flag
The lesbian pride flag first appeared in 2010 and was designed by Natalie McCray. The original flag included a lipstick print in the left-hand corner to represent the feminity of women. However, the flag has been criticized for not including butch lesbians. The different shades represent other shades of lipstick. Despite criticism for its terminology, the lesbian lipstick pride flag remains the most popular among their community.
Darkest Orange: Gender non-conformity
Middle Orange: Independence
Lightest Orange: Community
White: Unique relationships to womanhood
Lightest Pink: Serenity and peace
Middle Pink: Love and sex
Darkest Pink: Femininity
Asexual Pride Flag
Asexuality defines people who may be romantically involved with a person but do not have any sexual inclination towards them or anyone else. An asexual pride flag is a symbol of their own representation. A spectrum of the Asexual community is called “gray asexuality”. Another subset of this community is demisexuality; people who only feel sexually attracted if they have a strong emotional bond. People under this subset are called “gray ace”. Created in the year 2010, the flag was created to help spread awareness to the community.
Black: Represents Asexuality as a whole
Gray: Represents gray asexuality and demisexuality. Demisexuality is defined as no sexual attraction unless there is a strong emotional bond according to AVEN.
White: Represents sexuality
Purple: Represents the community
Intersex Pride Flag
The Intersex pride flag was created by Morgan Carpenter in 2013. People who have both sets of genitals and whose bodies do not align with a gender binary are part of this community.
Carpenter believed that the flag must represent wholeness and simplicity. He also said, “I wanted to create an image that people could use to represent intersex people without depending upon what I think are often misconceptions or stereotypes.”
Gold or yellow: Inspired by a fellow intersex individual Mani Mitchell to reclaim the slur “hermaphrodite” used against the intersex community.
Purple Circle: In the interview, Carpenter said, “The circle is about us being unbroken, about being whole and complete,” as well as the right for Intersex people to make decisions about their bodies.
Transgender Pride Flag
Monica Helms a transgender woman and army veteran created the transgender flag in 1999. Helms once said, “The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.”
Blue: Represents boys
Pink: Represents girls
White: Represents people who are transitioning, have no gender or are gender-neutral
Genderqueer Pride Flag
Genderqueers are people who do not subscribe or conform to societal and conventional expectations of themselves. Marilyn Roxie made the genderqueer flag in 2010.
Lavender: Represents androgyny
White: Represents agender identities
Green: Represents non-binary people
Genderfluid Pride Flag
People whose gender identity shifts between male-female and cess gender are termed as genderfluid. An individual’s identity shift solely depends on them. The flag was created by JJ Poole in 2012.
In an interview, Poole also revealed the reason he chose to create this flag. He said, “I had been trying to find an identity that fit me. At the time I knew genderqueer fit me, but it still felt too broad. I found genderfluid to be fitting but was disappointed with the lack of symbolic representation.”
Pink: Represents femininity
White: Represents all genders
Purple: Represents both masculinity and feminity
Black: Represents a lack of gender
Blue: Represents masculinity
Agender Pride Flag
An agender person does not identify with any gender in particular. The flag was designed by Salem X or “Ska”.
Black and white: Represent an absence of gender
Gray: Semi-genderlessness
Green: Non-binary genders
Non-Binary Pride Flag
People from the Non-Binary community do not follow gender or identity norms. They are similar to people from the genderqueer or genderfluid community. The flag was created in 2014 by Kye Rowan. The aim behind a different flag was for non-binary people to reclaim their true identity,
Yellow: Represents genders outside of the gender binary
White: Represents people who identify with many or all genders
Purple: Represents genders that are a combination of male and female
Black: Represents people who are agender
Philadelphia’s People of Color Inclusive Flag
The people of color inclusive flag was created in the year 2017 to give the black and brown people their representation in the LGBTQ community. This will also give them an identity to share their unique hardships and experiences.
Actress and director Lena Waithe wore a cape with these colors to the 2018 Met Gala to create awareness about the same.
Progress Pride Flag
Created in the year 2018 by Daniel Quasar, the flag comprises colors and stripes from Philly’s version of the pride flag and colors of the transgender flag. Revealing how the flag denotes inclusiveness, he said, “When the Pride flag was recreated in the last year to include both black/brown stripes as well as the trans stripes included this year, I wanted to see if there could be more emphasis in the design of the flag to give it more meaning.”