In 2017, Philadelphia unveiled a new flag with black and brown stripes that was intended to represent people of colour who felt “marginalised, ignored, and even intentionally excluded” from its Pride celebrations. There continues to be adaptations to the flag to ensure that all facets of the community continue to be represented. These meanings have not been lost though and the current version still has reasoning behind them.Īs it stands: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony and purple for spirit. Gilbert Baker’s estate proclaims that the original 8 colours had the following meanings behind each of them: pink was for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit. The turquoise and indigo stripes were also removed in favour of royal blue so the flag now had an equal number of stripes once more. It was edited as at the time hot pink was a non-standard colour and was costly to reproduce. The original 8 colours were: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo and violet. The original version of the now recognisable flag had eight stripes but by 1980 it was refined to it’s current six-stripe version that we all know and love.
For example, the pink triangle that Nazi Germany forced male prisoners to wear if they had been sent to concentration camps for homosexuality. The idea was to create something positive and celebratory as opposed to other symbols that had been used to identify members of the community. The original Rainbow Pride Flag featured eight colors from top to bottom: pink. Color Placement and a New Shape The word 'progress' in the new flag isn't only about adding the new colors to it. The flag is meant to provide affirmation for trans people no matter how it is flown, with either side on top. The idea was to create a recognisable emblem of empowerment for the queer community. According to The Advocate, it flew for the first time on June 25, 1978, at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade. The color white represents people who are transitioning, intersex, or identify outside of the gender binary. In 1978, a queer artist from San Francisco named Gilbert Baker created the flag and received $1,000 for his work. Did you know that each of the colours of the flag have their own meaning? History of the Flag We’ve all seen the rainbow flag by now, but it’s a lot more than just a rainbow.