You see it everywhere in June. It’s on crosswalks, Instagram bios, and cheap plastic sunglasses at big-box retailers. But honestly, most people just see a rainbow and think "solidarity" without actually knowing what the specific stripes represent. The reality is that the pride flag colors meaning isn't just about a pretty spectrum; it’s a living document of a movement that has been fighting for its life for over fifty years.
Gilbert Baker, the guy who started it all back in 1978, didn't just pick colors that looked good together. He was a veteran and a drag queen who wanted a "natural" symbol to replace the pink triangle—a symbol that had been forced onto queer people by the Nazis. He wanted something that came from the sky. Something beautiful.
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But the rainbow we use today isn't even the original version. The first one had eight colors. It’s been edited, condensed, and expanded over and over again. Understanding why those changes happened tells the story of the community better than any history book could.
The Eight-Color Original: What Gilbert Baker First Envisioned
The very first pride flag flew at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco during the Gay Freedom Day Parade. It was massive. Baker and a group of volunteers hand-dyed the fabric in giant trash cans. It was messy. It was visceral.
At that time, the pride flag colors meaning was deeply specific. Each stripe had a job. Hot Pink stood for sexuality. Red was for life. Orange represented healing, and Yellow was sunlight. Green stood for nature, while Turquoise was for magic or art. Indigo represented serenity, and finally, Violet was for spirit.
It was a holistic view of what it meant to be alive and queer. But life got in the way of the design.
When Baker went to the Paramount Flag Company to mass-produce his creation, they hit a snag. Hot pink fabric was incredibly expensive and hard to source in bulk. They dropped the pink. Then, a year later, Harvey Milk—the first openly gay elected official in California—was assassinated. The community wanted to fly the flags to honor him, but the odd number of stripes (seven at that point) didn't look right when hung vertically from lamp posts. The middle stripe would be obscured by the post. To make it symmetrical, they dropped turquoise and merged indigo and violet into a standard royal blue.
That’s how we ended up with the "classic" six-color rainbow. It was a compromise born of manufacturing limits and a political tragedy.
The Evolution of the Progress Pride Flag
For a long time, the six-stripe rainbow was the gold standard. But as the decades passed, a lot of people felt like the "universal" rainbow wasn't actually representing everyone. In 2017, the city of Philadelphia added a black and a brown stripe to the top of the flag. People freaked out. There was this huge debate online about whether you should "mess with a classic."
But the point was clear: people of color in the LGBTQ+ community were—and still are—facing higher rates of violence and discrimination. The black and brown stripes were a visual reminder that you can't have "pride" if you're leaving your Black and Brown siblings behind.
Then came Daniel Quasar. In 2018, Quasar redesigned the flag again to create what we now call the "Progress Pride Flag." This is the one with the chevron (the arrow shape) on the left side.
The pride flag colors meaning shifted once more. The chevron includes:
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- Black and Brown: Representing marginalized LGBTQ+ people of color.
- Light Blue, Pink, and White: The colors of the Transgender Pride Flag (originally designed by Monica Helms in 1999).
The arrow points to the right to show forward movement, but the fact that it’s on the left edge suggests that we still have a long way to go. It’s a design that acknowledges progress while admitting the work isn't finished. Honestly, it’s a bit busier visually, but its message is far more specific than a general rainbow.
Why the Colors Keep Expanding
You might have seen a version with a yellow triangle and a purple circle inside the chevron. That’s the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag, designed by Valentino Vecchietti in 2021.
Why do we keep adding things?
Because visibility is a survival tactic. For an intersex person, seeing that yellow and purple circle on a flag tells them they aren't an afterthought. The pride flag colors meaning adapts because the community's understanding of itself is adapting. We are moving away from "one size fits all" and toward "everyone is seen."
Some critics argue that the flag is becoming too cluttered. They say the original rainbow was meant to represent everyone anyway. But the counter-argument—and the one that usually wins out in activist circles—is that if your "universal" symbol consistently overlooks the most vulnerable members of your group, the symbol needs an update.
Beyond the Rainbow: Specific Identities
It’s not just about the main pride flag. There are dozens of others, and their color schemes are just as intentional.
Take the Bisexual Pride Flag, designed by Michael Page in 1998. It has a broad pink stripe (attraction to the same gender), a broad blue stripe (attraction to different genders), and a thin purple stripe in the middle where they overlap. The purple represents the "blur" of being bi. It’s about the fluidity between the two ends of the spectrum.
Then there’s the Lesbian Pride Flag. You’ve probably seen the "sunset" version. It’s got shades of orange, white, and pink. The oranges represent "gender non-conformity" and "independence," while the pinks represent "femininity" and "love." It replaced an older version that featured a labrys (a double-headed axe), which some felt was too aggressive or had problematic historical associations.
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The Non-binary Flag uses yellow, white, purple, and black. Yellow is used because it’s a color that doesn't traditionally associate with "blue for boys" or "pink for girls." It exists outside the binary entirely.
The Commercialization Problem
We have to talk about "Rainbow Washing."
Every June, corporations change their Twitter logos to rainbow versions of themselves. This is where the pride flag colors meaning gets a bit murky. When a bank uses the rainbow but donates to politicians who vote against LGBTQ+ rights, the colors lose their power. They become a marketing tool rather than a symbol of liberation.
This is why many activists prefer the Progress Pride Flag or the Intersex-Inclusive version in professional settings. It’s harder for a brand to co-opt a flag that explicitly demands justice for trans people and people of color. It forces a level of specificity that a standard rainbow doesn't.
Practical Steps for Using Pride Symbols Correctly
If you're an ally, or even a member of the community looking to fly a flag, keep these things in mind to ensure you’re being respectful of the history.
1. Context Matters
If you are hosting an event specifically for trans rights, use the Trans Pride Flag or the Progress Pride Flag. Using the basic six-color rainbow is fine, but it’s less "precise."
2. Support the Creators
When buying pride gear, check who made it. Are the profits going to a queer artist or a massive corporation that only cares about June sales? There are plenty of LGBTQ+ owned shops like Stuzo Clothing or Wildfang that actually give back to the community.
3. Learn the Local History
The flag in San Francisco means something slightly different than the flag in Warsaw or Mumbai. In some countries, flying these colors is a literal crime. Respect the weight that those stripes carry for people in less safe environments.
4. Don't Be a Perfectionist
The community is always debating which flag is "best." Don't get paralyzed by the fear of using the "wrong" one. The most important thing is the intent behind it—solidarity, safety, and a refusal to be invisible.
The pride flag colors meaning isn't a static definition. It’s a conversation. It started with hand-dyed fabric in a San Francisco attic and has grown into a global language. Whether it’s six stripes or eleven, the message remains the same: we are here, we are different, and that difference is exactly what makes the world worth living in.
Next time you see a flag, look closer at the stripes. Don't just see a rainbow. See the life, the healing, the sunlight, and the ongoing fight for a place in the sun.