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Pride Flags

A brief history and description of each pride flag flown at our Center. Click the "Read More" to get more information on a pride flag.

The flags listed below and the history behind them were compiled through research done by the GSRC Staff. This is not an exhaustive list of all flags. If you see any flag that should be added to our page, or a piece of information on how one of the flags originated that doesn’t make sense or should be changed, please reach out to gsrc@unco.edu.

Agender Pride Flag

Agender Pride Flag

Agender: People who identify as having no gender or as gender neutral. The term Agendercan be literally translated to ‘without gender’. Agenderfolks may have any type of expression and use any set of pronouns or no pronouns.

History: The Agender flag has seven horizontal stripes and was created in the year of 2014 by Salem X. The flag was created to represent those within the Agender community. Agender folks may identify as having no gender, having an undefinable gender, not aligning with any gender, gender-neural or neutrois, or choose not to label their gender.

Another version of the Agender Pride Flag was created by Rumpus Parable in 2014. This version features three horizontal stripes and uses only two colors. The black stripe represents those without a gender identity. The complimenting white stripes are to be inclusive to those who are non-binary and intersex. The colors black and white were chosen in contrast to the separation of genders and expressions included in other pride flags.

Flag Meaning
Black: Represents the absence of gender
White: Represents the absence of gender
Grey: Represents semi-genderless
Green: Represents non-binary genders

Trans Pride Flag

Trans Pride Flag

Transgender Pride Flag

Transgender: People whose gender identity doesn’t align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

History: The transgender pride flag was created in 1999 by Monica Helms, a transgender navy veteran, and first flown at a pride parade in Phoenix in 2000. The design and colors were carefully chosen by Helms. That first flag she created now flies at the Smithsonian Natural Museum of American History. Since its debut in 2000, the trans pride flag has grown to be the prevailing symbol of the transgender community. It was flown in San Francisco’s Castro District on the November 19, 2012, in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was also displayed in the White House during Pride Month in June 2016.

Flag Meaning
Light Blue: Represents the traditional color for boys.
Light Pink: Represents the traditional color for girls.
White: Represents those who are intersex, transitioning, or see themselves as having a neutral or undefined gender.

Aromantic Pride Flag

Aromantic Pride Flag

Aromantic: Someone who does not experience romantic attraction, or does so in a significantly different way than is traditionally thought of.

History: The first aromantic pride flag was a four-stripe design with green, yellow, orange, and black. Green represented the opposite of red (the color of romance), yellow played off of yellow flowers which represent friendship, orange because it was between yellow and red (for grey-romantics), and black was for alloromantics who reject the traditional ideas of romance. It is unknown when this flag was designed, or by whom.

The second aromantic pride flag was a five stripe design of dark-green, light-green, yellow, grey, and black. This design was created by Tumblr user Cameron (@cameronwhimsy) from Australia on February 7, 2014.

The third and most recent design is the one flown by the GSRC, and is the most widely accepted version, replacing the yellow of the second flag to a white stripe. This flag was designed by Cameron as well, updating the design themselves on November 16, 2014.

Flag Meaning
Dark Green: Represents aromanticism.
Light Green: Represents the aromantic spectrum.
White: Represents platonic and aesthetic attraction, as well as queer/quasi platonic relationships.
Grey: Represents grey-aromantic and demiromantic people.
Black: Represents the sexuality spectrum.

Asexual Pride Flag

Asexual Pride Flag

Asexuality: The lack of sexual attraction to all genders.

History: The asexual flag came about after AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) held a contest on its forum boards to create a pride flag for those who identify as asexual. The winning design was posted on June 30, 2010 by AVEN user “standup”. The colors black, grey, white and purple, were chosen as the same ones that are a part of AVEN’s logo.
Asexuality includes a spectrum of many asexual identities under its umbrella.

Flag Meaning
Black: Asexuality
Grey: Grey-asexuality and demi-sexuality
White: Non-asexual partners and allies
Purple: Community

Bisexual Pride Flag

Bisexual Pride Flag

Bisexuality: The physical or romantic attraction to two genders.

History: The word “bisexual” comes from the Greek prefix “bi” meaning “two”. The bisexual pride flag was created in 1998 by Michael Page, to differentiate the community from the rainbow flag and the gay community. Page decided to create it after his time at BiNet USA, a nonprofit organization.

The flag was unveiled on December 5, 1998, at BiCafe’s (an early bisexual web site) 1st anniversary party.

Flag Meaning
Pink: Representing attraction to those of the same gender identity.
Purple: Representing attraction to two genders.
Blue: Representing attraction to those who identify as a different gender.

Butch Lesbian Pride Flag

Butch Lesbian Pride Flag

Butch Lesbian: A female-identified person who likes other female-identified people and presents more traditionally “masculine” in appearance.

History: The first butch lesbian pride flag was created in 2016 by tumbler user dorian—rutherford. The flag was designed for lesbians who do not identify with the lipstick lesbian flag due to its feminine nature. The original post was deleted from the tumbler, but later resurfaced on deviantart.com. Another variation of the butch flag was created in 2017 by tumbler user butchspace to represent butch positivity. Both variations of the butch lesbian flag are still slowly gaining traction in the community.

Although the creator never explicitly explained the meaning of the colors, people have guessed that the blue represents masculinity, the purple represents lesbian and woman-identified individuals, and the white represents people across the gender and sexuality spectrums more broadly. The butch lesbian flag is one variation of several lesbian flags, including the lipstick lesbian flag and labrys lesbian flag.

Flag Meaning
Blue: represents masculinity.
White: represents people across the gender and sexuality spectrums more broadly.
Purple: represents lesbian and woman-identified individuals.

Colorado Pride Flag

 Colorado Pride Flag

History: The Colorado Pride Flag combines the original Colorado state flag with the rainbow stripes from the LGBTQA+ pride flag. The “C”, golden disk, and colors were not specifically stated though until 1964. The flag has rapidly gained popularity since 2016, and can be seen at local pride parades.

Along with the Colorado LGBTQA+ Pride Flag, many other U.S. states have their own versions of their state flags with rainbow coloring added to represent LGBTQA+ Pride.

Flag Meaning
Blue: Represents the sky.
White: Represents the snow-capped mountains.
“C”: For Colorado.
Red: For the clay in the ground.
Yellow: For the sunshine Colorado gets.

Demiromantic pride flag

Demiromantic Pride Flag

Demiromantic: Feeling romantic attraction to someone only after forming an emotional bond with them. Part of the grey-romantic and broader aromantic community.

Aromantic: Little to no romantic attraction to others.

History: The term demiromantic describes an identity under the asexual and grey-asexual umbrellas. The coinage of the term is unknown, however a page on The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was created for demiromantic in August 2011 under the lexicon section of the website.

Demiromantic people may use a pre-fix when describing their romantic identity, such as “demi-homoromantic” to future specify their romantic attraction. Like all romantic identities, demiromantics may have any sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or expression.

Little information is known about the meaning and creation of the demiromantic flag. However, those within the demiromantic community speculate that it is based off the aromantic flag and AVEN logo. The flag continues to gain popularity as the aromantic and asexual communities continue to become more visible.

Flag Meaning
Black: Sexuality spectrum
Grey: Grey-aromanticism and demiromanticism
White: Platonic and aesthetic attraction, as well as queer/quasi platonic relationships
Green: Aromantic spectrum

Demisexual pride flag

Demisexual Pride Flag

Demisexual: Feeling sexual attraction to someone only after forming a deep emotional bond with them. Part of the broader asexual community.

History: The term demisexual was coined in 2006 on the forums of The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) by user “sonofzeal”, and started to gain widespread popularity in 2008. “Sonofzeal” felt neither completely asexual nor completely non-asexual, so coining demisexual helped him more accurately describe him needing an emotional as a prerequisite to sexual attraction.

It is unknown how or when the demisexual flag came to be, but it is very similar to the asexual flag in its use of colors, which itself was based off the AVEN logo. The flag continues to gain popularity as the asexual community continues to become more visible.

Flag Meaning
Black: Asexuality
Grey: Asexuality and Demi-sexuality
White: Sexuality
Purple: Community

Genderfluid Pride Flag

Genderfluid Pride Flag

Genderfluid: People who have a gender expression/expressions or identity/identities that are not constant or fixed.

History: The genderfluid pride flag was created by JJ Poole in 2013. The flag's creation was to represent people whose gender identity and/or expression is fluid and may fluctuate at different times or in different circumstances.

The flags five horizontal colored stripes represent the diversity of gender fluidity, genderfluid identity, and the genderfluid community. Genderfluid people may also identify as a part of the non-binary community, transgender community, or as multigender. Genderfluid people may have multiple gender identities, expressions, or use multiple sets of pronouns that fluctuate sometimes, constantly, or in a pattern.

Flag Meaning
Pink:
Represents femininity.
White: Represents lack of gender.
Purple: Represents a combination of both masculinity and femininity.
Black: Represents all genders, including genders that do not align with femininity or masculinity.
Blue: Represents masculinity.

Genderqueer Pride Flag

Genderqueer Pride Flag

Genderqueer: People whose gender identity does not fit within the male/female binary.

History: The flag was created in June 2011 by Marilyn Roxie in order to create visibility for the genderqueer community and related identities. The flag was originally intended to represent all non-binary and genderqueer people, but as the genderqueer community grew the flag became synonymous with "genderqueer" specifically, leaving many non-binary people to not feel represented by the flag. A non-binary flag was created in February 2014 by Kye Rowan to represent non-binary people specifically.

Flag Meaning
Lavender: Mixture of “blue” and “pink”. Represents androgyny, and people who identify as a mixture of female and male.
White: Represents agender people.
Dark Chartreuse Green: The inverse of lavender. Represents people who identify outside of and without reference to the gender binary.

Intersex Pride Flag

Intersex Pride Flag

Intersex: A person born with physical sex characteristics that don’t fit the traditional definitions for male or female bodies.

History: The intersex flag  was unveiled on July 5, 2013 by creator Morgan Carpenter, then co-chair of Organization Intersex International Australia. Carpenter created the flag as a way to have a commonly understood symbol and flag. He mentioned that other attempts seemed derivative and sought to create something that had a firmly grounded meaning.

The flag has quickly gained popularity among intersex communities and organizations, thanks in part to its unique design. A flag that is also used to represent intersex pride and awareness was created in 2009 by Natalie Phox, with blue, pink, purple, and white stripes.

Flag Meaning
Purple: Used because it’s seen as a gender neutral color.
Yellow: Used because it’s seen as a gender neutral color.
Circle: Represents wholeness, completeness and the intersex people’s potentiality.

Labrys Lesbian Pride Flag

Labrys Lesbian Pride Flag

Labrys: A double-headed battle axe most commonly associated with the Minoan ancient civilization, the Amazons, and the Greek goddess Demeter.

History: The labrys has been used as a symbol of lesbian and female empowerment since the 1970s. This double-headed battle axe can be traced back to ancient matriarchal societies, such as the Minoan civilization. A Minoan woman with a labrys typically held a powerful position within Minoan society.

In Greek mythology, the labrys was associated with harvest from the Greek goddess, Demeter, and the Amazons, a tribe of warrior women. Because of the background of the labrys, it was adopted by the lesbian radical feminist movement in the 1970s as a symbol of empowerment for women-identified-women.

Flag Meaning
Purple: Represents women, feminism, and all people who identify as a woman attracted to other women.
Black Triangle: Represents lesbians.
Labrys: Represents women empowerment.

Lesbian pride flag

Lesbian Pride Flag

Lesbian: A female-identified person who is attracted to other female-identified people.

History: The word “lesbian” literally means resident of the island Lesbos and became synonymous with women who like women in reference to the island’s most famous resident, Sappho, a female poet who wrote many love poems to other women around 600 BCE.

The use of the term “lesbian” can be traced to sometime in the 1800s. Before that, the term “sapphic” was used to refer to women who liked other women.

The word gained popularity as part of a movement in the late 1960s to differentiate themselves from gay men. There are many other variations of the lesbian flag, including ones specifically for butch lesbians and labrys lesbians.

Flag Meaning: The colors of red, purple, and pink represent traditionally feminine colors.

Non-binary pride flag

Non-Binary Pride Flag

Non-Binary: People whose gender identity does not fit within the traditional male/female binary.

History: o The Non-Binary Flag was created by Kyle Rowan in 2014. The four horizontal stripes of the colors- yellow, white, purple, and black are symbolic for Non-Binary peoples’ experience. This flag was not created with the intention to replace the Genderqueer flag, but to be flown alongside it.

Flag Meaning
Yellow:
Represents those whose gender falls outside of and without reference to the binary.
White: Represents people with many or all genders.
Purple: Represents those whose gender identity falls somewhere between male/female or is a mix of them.
Black: Represents people who feel they are without a gender

Pansexual Pride Flag

Pansexual Pride Flag

Pansexuality: The attraction to people regardless of their gender identity.

History: The word “pansexual” comes from the Greek prefix “pan” meaning “all”. Pansexuality differs from bisexuality in that people who identify as pansexual are emotionally or physically attracted to all genders, regardless of sex or gender identity, whereas bisexuality is defined as people who are emotionally or physically attracted to two genders.

The pansexual pride flag was created to differentiate between the bisexuality flag, which also has three horizontal bars. It was created on the internet sometime around 2010, and has gained popularity since then.

Flag Meaning
Pink: Representing attraction to those who identify as female.
Yellow: Representing attraction to those who identify as genderqueer, non-binary, agender, androgynous, or anyone who doesn’t identify on the male-female binary.
Blue: Representing attraction to those who identify as male.

Philadelphia Pride Flag

Philadelphia Pride Flag

LGBTQA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Asexual, and all other identities that fall into the LGBTQA+ community across the gender, sexuality, and romantic spectrums.

QPOC: Queer People of Color. Members of the queer community who are also people of color.

History: The QPOC inclusive LGBTQA+ Pride flag is based on the current widely accepted LGBTQA+ Pride Flag, the 6 color rainbow flag, first created by gilbert baker in 1978.

The QPOC inclusive LGBTQA+ flag or “ Philadelphia Pride Flag” was unveiled on June 8, 2017 at a pride month kick-off event at Philadelphia City Hall.

The Philadelphia Pride flag adds two stripes, black and brown, to the traditional six of the rainbow flag. The design was created by Philadelphia based PRd agency Tierney for Philadelphia's “More Color More Pride'' campaign, which aims to showcase the city's commitment to people of color in the queer community. Adding the black and brown stripes is a small but powerful step for inclusivity in the LGBTQA+ community.

Flag Meaning
Black and Brown: Queer People of Color
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Blue: Harmony/Peace
Violet: Spirit

Polyamorous Pride Flag

Polyamorous Pride Flag

Polyamory: The ability to love multiple people and/or be involved in multiple relationships within the context of mutual consent.

History: The original polyamorous pride flag was created in the Pacific Northwest in early fall of 1995 by Jim Evans, who wanted to create an anonymous symbol for the polyamorous community that could be acknowledged and shared by those who knew the symbol. With the advent of the internet, people began to discover the flag, and it grew in popularity and use.

A modified version was created in Colorado in 2017 by the University of Northern Colorado Poly Community, one that has the infinity hearts symbol, a common symbol of the polyamorous community, instead of Evans' original pi symbol.

Flag Meaning
Blue: Represents the openness and honesty of all parties involved in the relationships.
Red: Represents love and passion.
Black: Represents solidarity with those who must hide their polyamorous relationships from the outside world.
Yellow: The value placed on emotional attachment to others.
Infinity Heart Sign: Represents the infinite love for multiple partners at the same time.

Polysexual Pride Flag

Polysexual Pride Flag

Polysexual: Someone who is sexually attracted to multiple, but not all, genders.

Polyromantic: Someone who is romantically attracted to multiple, but not all, genders.

History: On July 11, 2012, a flag designed by a Tumblr user with the signature “Samlin” submitted or posted a design to the blog @f***yeahpolysexuality, explaining their design: “I, as a poly individual, was greatly saddened by the fact that we don’t have a flag…so I made one :P I made it similar to the bi and pan flags, since they’re all in under the multisexual umbrella. -Samlin”

The colors and design of the flag are based off the bisexual and pansexual flags, borrowing the blue and pink, and replacing the purple and yellow stripes with a green one.

Flag Meaning
Pink: Represents attraction to female-identified people.
Green: Represents attraction to people who identify outside the traditional male-female binary.
Blue: Represents attraction to male-identified people.

Progress Pride Flag

Progress Pride Flag

LGBTQIA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and all other identities that fall into the LGBTQA+ community across the gender, sexuality, and romantic spectrums.

QPOC: Queer People of Color. Members of the Queer community who are also People of Color.

History: First created in 2018, the graphic artist Daniel Quasar designed Progress Pride Flag to highlight and honor Queer People of Color and the Transgender community. This flag has been adapted from the Baker Pride Flag (1978) also known as the “Retro 8” pride flag, and the Philadelphia Pride Flag (2017) which was introduced as a part of the city of Philadelphia’s “More Color More Pride” campaign.

Quasar kept the original rainbow flag six colors to honor their meaning with an addition of the Trans flag, Black, and Brown arrow that points to the right to signify forward movement within LGBTQ+ rights. Quasar states that, "This new design forces the viewer to reflect on their own feelings towards the original Pride flag and its meaning as well as the differing opinions on who that flag really represents, while also bringing into clear focus the current needs within our community."

Flag Meaning
Black and Brown: Black and Lantinx Queer Communities
Transgender Flag: Transgender Communities
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Blue: Harmony/Peace
Violet: Spirit

Rainbow Pride Flag

Rainbow Pride Flag

LGBTQA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer, Asexual, and all other identities that fall into the LGBTQA+ community.

History: The rainbow flag representing the LGBTQA+ community was created by Gilbert Baker, and first flown in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. The original flag consisted of eight horizontal stripes, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet, but pink was removed after a year due to fabric shortages. It’s been rumored that Baker might have been emulating the song “Over the Rainbow” by Judy Garland (one of the first gay icons), the Stonewall Riots, or based off a flag for world peace flown at campuses nationwide in the 1960’s.

Baker’s life changed when he met the first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk in 1974. Milk challenged Baker to come up with a symbol for the gay community in 1977. After Milk’s assassination on November 27, 1978, demands for the flag rapidly increased.

The rainbow flag has grown immensely in visibility and acceptance and is now widely accepted as the predominant symbol for the LGBTQA+ community. Also in June 2015, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) acquired the original flag. Gilbert Baker died on March 31, 2017, but his legacy will always live on.

Flag Meaning
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Blue: Harmony/Peace
Violet: Spirit

Two-Spirit Pride Flag

Two-Spirit Pride Flag

Two-Spirit: An umbrella term to identify queer Native American individuals with traditional and cultural understandings of gender roles and identity.

History: Two-spirit is a concept that existed before European colonization of North America. Tribes described two-spirit individuals in different ways; however, they shared similar characteristics.

Two-spirit individuals traditionally were viewed as holding a masculine and feminine spirit. They held a gender identity outside of the binary man or woman. They were designated social roles that were for men and women, such as artist, hunter, ceremonial leader or healer. Two-spirit
individuals expressed their gender in ways that did not conform to only man or woman.

According to tradition, two-spirit identity was a result of supernatural intervention in the form of dreams or visions and aligned with tribal mythology. Some two-spirit individuals also formed intimate relationships with non-two-spirit people of the same sex.

Flag Meaning
Two Feathers: Represents masculine and feminine identities.
Circle: Represents the unification of masculine and feminine
identities into a separate gender.
Rainbow Colors: Represents modern

Intersex Progressive Flag

Intersex Progress Pride Flag

Designed by Valentino Vecchietti (2021) 

Intersex: A person with both physical sex characteristics that do not fit the binary definitions for male or female bodies 

History: In 2013, Morgan Carpenter and Tony Briffa designed the Intersex flag, yellow with a purple ring. In 2017, Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs developed the rainbow flag to incorporate the colors black and brown to include Black, brown, and people of color. In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti, a social media personality, designed the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag to be inclusive to the Intersex community. 

Flag Meaning: 

Yellow with Purple ring: Intersex Pride 

White, pink & light blue: Transgender Pride 

Brown: Represents brown people, and people of color, within the LGBT community 

Black: Represents Black people within the LGBT community 

Red: Represents Life 

Orange: Represents Healing 

Yellow: Represents the Sun 

Green: Represents Nature 

Blue: Represents Art 

Violet: Represents Spirit