Words: Jonathan McIntosh
This feature was first published in May 2025 in My Mensa Weekly, our exclusive newsletter for Mensa members. Find out more about becoming a Mensa member here.
This year’s Pride month runs from Monday 1 to Tuesday 30 June.
From protests and marches to parades and community events, the Pride movement’s purpose has always been to champion the LGBTQIA+ community’s diversity and spotlight the issues it faces in its fight for equality and acceptance. The Pride flag has acted like a clarion call to rally the community into action and celebration for decades. And its iconic colours remind us that LGBTQIA+ individuals exist everywhere – just like rainbows. But what were the flag’s origins and how – and why – did it evolve?
The UK’s first Pride march took place in London on 1 July 1972. Beginning at Trafalgar Square and ending at Hyde Park, the event was organised by the Gay Liberation Front on the nearest Saturday to the third anniversary of the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York, when LGBTQIA+ patrons were targeted by police. The pink triangle – employed by the Nazis to identify homosexuals – was the most prevalent image used by the growing gay rights movement on both sides of the Pond at the time. Given this symbol’s dark past, however, the community was in search of a new one.
Origins of the Pride flag
Enter, Gilbert Baker’s Pride flag. The artist, activist, Vietnam War veteran and former drag performer was commissioned to create the flag for the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade on 25 June 1978, by California’s first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk.
Baker selected the rainbow for his design as he argued that it was nature’s own version of a flag. He credited the stars and stripes motif used during America’s bicentennial celebrations in 1976 as another inspiration; the patriotism displayed at these events made him realise LGBTQIA+ needed something similar.
Colour theory
Baker’s original flag had eight colours, each with their own meaning: pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (magic), indigo (serenity) and violet (spirit). It was flown for the first time in downtown San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza for the city’s 1978 Pride parade. A 30-strong team of volunteers had dyed, rinsed, sewed and ironed Baker’s vision to life.
The popularity of the multi-coloured flag skyrocketed when Harvey Milk and San Francisco’s mayor, George Moscone, were assassinated inside San Francisco City Hall on 27 November 1978, and many people began using it for memorial events commemorating Milk as a champion of LGBTQIA+ rights.
As a result of this increased visibility as well as demand, Baker altered his design, dropping the pink band because the pigment used was difficult to source. A year later, he dropped the turquoise band to keep the number of stripes even and opted for a more standard blue instead of indigo. The resulting six-striped version of the flag was used for decades, and a mile-long version of it was even created for the Stonewall riots’ 25th anniversary in 1994.
Baker passed away, aged 65, on 31 March 2017 – two years after the legalisation of same-sex marriage in America. His legacy remains prevalent, with numerous Pride flags evolving from his design.
Evolution in the US
In 2017, Philadelphia’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs decided to introduce the Philly Pride flag. This version included black and brown stripes to represent the Queer, Black, transgender and indigenous ethnic minorities, who had been historically excluded from the LGBTQIA+ community despite spearheading much of its activism.
Seattle followed suit in 2018 by adding five new colours to the Pride flag. As well as black and brown bands, the new pink, light blue and white bands were added to represent trans, gender non-binary, intersex and other identities on the gender spectrum.
And in the same year, American artist and graphic designer Daniel Quasar designed the Progress Pride flag. Using Baker’s original design, they added white, pink, light blue, brown and black triangular stripes to the flag’s hoist (the edge closest to the flagpole) – the first three representing the trans and non-binary communities and the other two for marginalised ethnic minorities. The black stripe was included as a symbol for people living with AIDS and those lost to it.
Like the Philadelphia and Seattle revisions, Quasar’s intent with the Progress Pride flag has been to highlight that the fight for LGBTQIA+ inclusivity needs to be representative of all identities present in society.
Ensuring equality and inclusion
A further two designs have since emerged, following Quasar’s reworking of the Pride flag. The Queer People of Colour Pride flag debuted in 2020, its designer unknown. It features a raised fist showing gradients of different skin tones to underline the ever-present place of Black people and ethnic minorities in LGBTQIA+ communities and activism.
The most recent design – created decades after Baker’s original and iconic flag – is the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag designed by equality rights campaigner Valentino Vecchietti in 2021. It shows a purple circle within a yellow triangle to represent Intersex communities. Using Quasar’s Progress Pride design as its base, the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag has 11 different colours.
In a community whose existence is intertwined with creativity, activism and inclusion, Baker’s Pride flag and its contemporary counterparts will continue to be reimagined the more we understand the complexities of human identity. In all its forms, the Pride flag is a reminder of the battles the LGBTQIA+ community has faced throughout history. It’s also a potent symbol of hope and progress that connects LGBTQIA+ people to community and safety. This multifaceted purpose is its quiet but colourful power.
Discover the story of the Gay Liberation Front and how they’ve fought for and won rights for the UK’s LGBTQIA+ community over the past 50 years.
Credits: Gilbert Baker’s original Pride flag. Shutterstock
