Walk down any city street in June and you’ll see it. It’s on crosswalks, bank windows, and t-shirts. But if you actually stop to look at the colors of the pride rainbow, you might notice something weird. Some flags have six stripes. Some have eight. Others have these funky chevrons on the side with brown, black, and light blue.
It’s not just a design trend.
Most people think Gilbert Baker just sat down and picked some pretty colors in 1978. That’s not really how it happened. He was a veteran and a drag queen who was basically dared by Harvey Milk to create a symbol for the movement. Back then, the "symbol" for gay people was the pink triangle—a horrific remnant of Nazi concentration camps. Baker wanted something that didn't come from a place of murder. He wanted something that came from the sky.
The original 1978 flag actually had eight colors. It looked way different than the one you see on most coffee mugs today.
The messy history of the six-color standard
Why did we lose two colors? Honestly, it was just logistics. It wasn't some deep political statement. It was about money and fabric.
The original eight-color flag included hot pink and turquoise. When Baker went to mass-produce the thing through the Paramount Flag Company, hot pink fabric was too expensive or just plain unavailable in bulk. They dropped it. Later, in 1979, the organizers of the San Francisco Pride Parade wanted to split the flag in half to decorate both sides of Market Street. An odd number of stripes didn't work for a symmetrical display, so they axed turquoise too.
Suddenly, we had the "standard" six-color rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
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- Red is for life.
- Orange represents healing.
- Yellow signifies sunlight.
- Green is nature.
- Blue (originally indigo) stands for serenity or harmony.
- Violet is the spirit.
It's kinda wild that the most recognizable symbol of a global movement was basically edited by a textile factory’s inventory issues. But that’s history for you. It’s rarely as clean as the textbooks make it out to look.
Why the colors of the pride rainbow keep evolving
If you’ve seen the "Progress Pride Flag" by Daniel Quasar, you’ve seen the black, brown, and trans-colored stripes. This version, created in 2018, sparked a ton of debate. Some folks felt the original rainbow already included everyone. Why add more?
Well, the reality is that the "community" isn't always a big, happy family.
Historically, Black and Brown queer people have been sidelined in the very movement they helped start. Think about Marsha P. Johnson or Sylvia Rivera. For decades, the "mainstream" Pride movement was very white and very cisgender. Adding black and brown stripes wasn't about "changing" the rainbow; it was about forcing a conversation about racism within the LGBTQ+ world.
The light blue, pink, and white stripes represent the trans community. Since trans rights have become the primary frontline of modern political battles, many people feel that leaving them out of the flag's specific design is a missed opportunity for solidarity.
The Philly influence
In 2017, the city of Philadelphia officially added the black and brown stripes to the flag. People lost their minds on social media. Some argued that the rainbow already represented "diversity," so adding specific colors was redundant. But the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs was responding to very real reports of discrimination in Philly’s "Gayborhood" bars. The flag was a signal: We see you, and you are actually welcome here.
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It’s about intentionality.
What about the other flags?
You’ve probably seen the ones that look like sunset gradients or shades of purple and grey. Those aren't "variations" of the rainbow; they’re specific identities.
- The Lesbian Flag (the "Orange-Pink" version) focuses on femininity and community.
- The Bisexual Flag (pink, purple, and blue) was designed by Michael Page in 1998 to increase bisexual visibility because, let’s be real, bi-erasure is a massive problem.
- The Pansexual Flag (pink, yellow, and cyan) uses bright, almost primary colors to represent attraction regardless of gender.
It can feel like "alphabet soup" if you aren't living in it. I get that. But for the people who use these flags, those specific colors are a lifeline. They’re a way to say, "I exist in a specific way that isn't just a sub-category of something else."
The science of seeing color
There’s a weird bit of physics involved here too. Did you know that Isaac Newton actually added "indigo" to the rainbow just because he thought the number seven was lucky? He wanted the colors of the spectrum to match the seven notes in a musical scale.
Gilbert Baker’s choice to use fabric and dyes was a way of grounding that "celestial" light into something people could actually hold. Fabric moves. It flows. It’s tactile. When you see the colors of the pride rainbow caught in the wind, it hits differently than a digital graphic. Baker often called it a "natural flag" because it comes from the sky, but the way we interpret those colors is entirely human.
The controversy of "Rainbow Washing"
We have to talk about corporations. You know the drill: June 1st hits, and every logo on Twitter turns into a rainbow.
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This is where the colors of the pride rainbow get complicated. Is it progress that a multi-billion dollar defense contractor uses a pride flag in their marketing? Or is it a slap in the face?
Expert activists like Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO of GLAAD, often point out that visibility is a double-edged sword. On one hand, seeing a rainbow in a small-town Walmart can be life-changing for a closeted kid. It says "you are safe." On the other hand, if that company is donating to politicians who are actively stripping away queer rights, the colors are just a lie.
It’s called "pinkwashing." Basically, using the aesthetics of liberation to cover up a lack of actual support.
Real impact vs. aesthetic
When you're looking at how the colors of the pride rainbow are used, check the "About Us" page. Look at the HRC Corporate Equality Index. If a company uses the colors but doesn't offer trans-inclusive healthcare or have a non-discrimination policy, the colors are just wallpaper.
Actionable ways to respect the rainbow
If you want to use these colors or support the movement, don't just buy a cheap plastic flag from a giant retailer.
- Support queer creators: Buy your pride gear from actual LGBTQ+ artists who live and breathe this stuff.
- Learn the specific meanings: Don't just lump every flag together. If you see a flag with yellow and a purple circle (the Intersex flag), take thirty seconds to Google what intersex means.
- Check the history: Read about the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riot or the 1969 Stonewall uprising. The colors didn't come from a vacuum; they came from a riot.
- Focus on local impact: A rainbow flag on your porch is nice, but showing up to a school board meeting to defend inclusive books is what the colors are actually supposed to represent.
The colors of the pride rainbow are constantly shifting. They’ll probably look different in twenty years. And that’s okay. The whole point of the movement is evolution. We learn more about gender, we learn more about race, and we learn more about how to be better humans. The flag is just a map of where we’ve been and where we're trying to go.
If it stayed the same forever, it would be a museum piece. Instead, it’s a living thing. It's messy, it's bright, and it's sometimes a pain to print on a t-shirt. But it matters because it’s ours.
To truly engage with the symbolism, start by identifying one specific LGBTQ+ organization in your local area. Look past the global icons and see who is doing the work on the ground—whether that's a youth center or a legal aid group—and find one way to contribute that isn't just aesthetic.