The History of LGBTQIA2-S Pride Flag

June is right around the corner, and we are excited. However, most of our LGBTQIA2S supporters look forward to the pride parade for the colors but do not understand what they mean. Worry not, the flag is dynamic and inclusive. Over the years, more colors have been added to foster inclusion in the community.

When you hear LGBTQIA2S, you think it’s one entity, but it is a collection of many different communities that have come together to celebrate pride.

History

You may be familiar with the rainbow flag, what you don’t know is that over the years it has been updated to include The intersectional diversity of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Two-Spirit communities.

Before the rainbow, a pink triangle acted as a visual representation. An adaptation of the badges gay prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps were forced to wear.  Other symbols include a purple handprint, the ace, the lambda Greek symbol, a green carnation, and a blue feather.

In 1970, Hervey Milk championed the rainbow design, which was intended to represent the then-gay community. Harvey was the first openly gay man to be elected to office. The election birthed the LGBTQIA2S flag we know today, designed by his friend baker.

The flag debuted in 1978 at the Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. They had eight colors each with a meaning.

·         Hot pink – Sex

·         Red – Life

·         Orange – healing

·         Yellow – Sunlight

·         Green – Nature

·         Turquoise – magic

·         Indigo – Serenity

·         Violet – Spirit

The flag was eccentric, but soon after the hot pink and turquoise colors were removed to manufacturing difficulty, hence the six-color flag we know now. Many communities within the LGBTQIA2S have come up with their flag. Now, there are specific flags that represent the bisexual, asexual, transgender, pansexual, bisexual, lesbian, and other communities.

In 2017, the black and brown colors were added to the flag by the Philadelphia office to include people of color. The inclusion was aimed at combating the longstanding discrimination against the BIPOC. In 2018, Daniel Quasar incorporated brown, black, white, pink, and blue into the Philadelphia Pride Flag creating the Progress Pride Flag.

The inclusion of historically marginalized communities by Quasar had a great impact on the 1969 uprising by the transgender community. The uprising is now commemorated yearly through Pride Month.

The intersex-inclusive Pride flag, with a purple circle over the yellow triangle, was designed by Valentino Vecchietti in 2021. The circle represents the intersex pride flag. Like the rest of the members of the community, intersex people are greatly underrepresented.

For now, and forever, we celebrate and uplift the LGBTQIA2S community.