Curated Journey
Pride Flags And Symbols
Follow the visual history of Pride flags from Gilbert Baker's rainbow through bi, trans, ace, intersex, Progress and the 2010s wave of online community flag design.
Who this helps
Educators, inclusion teams, designers, researchers and readers who want a clear route through Pride flag origins, symbolism and attribution.
Journey Map
- Topic guides
- 5
- Timeline milestones
- 24
- Law references
- 0
- Direct answers
- 4
Start With These Topic Guides
Step 1
Pride Flags and Symbols
Pride flags are visual tools for identity, solidarity and political visibility, from the rainbow flag to community-created asexual and intersex flags.
Step 2Pride Movement Origins
Modern Pride grew from resistance to police harassment, the Stonewall uprising, early liberation organising, and public marches that connected protest with visibility.
Step 3Asexual and Two-Spirit Visibility
Asexual and Two-Spirit visibility grew through community-created language, gatherings, research and campaigns that challenged narrow LGBTQ+ narratives.
Step 4Intersex Rights and Recognition
Intersex rights milestones moved from public protest and awareness days to UN scrutiny of harmful medical practices and global legal mapping.
Step 5UK Trans Pioneers and Recognition
UK trans history before the Gender Recognition Act includes medical pioneers, public visibility, community organising, hostile legal precedents and later human-rights reform.
Follow The Timeline Milestones
June 1978 Milestone 1 Design of the Pride Flag Artist Gilbert Baker designed the first rainbow flag for San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade, with each colour symbolising a different aspect of LGBTQ+ community and pride. Originally featuring eight stripes, the flag was later simplified to six colours and rapidly became the most widely recognised symbol of LGBTQ+ identity worldwide. 1995 Milestone 2 Polyamorous Pride Flag Created by Jim Evans Jim Evans created an early polyamorous pride flag using blue, red and black stripes with a gold pi symbol. The design gave polyamorous communities a reusable visual marker for openness, love, solidarity with closeted people and the pi symbol as a sign of infinite relationship possibility. 1998 Milestone 3 Bisexual Pride Flag Created by Michael Page Michael Page created the bisexual pride flag in 1998 to give bisexual people a distinct, recognisable symbol within Pride spaces. Its pink, purple and blue bands are commonly read as same-gender attraction, attraction across genders and different-gender attraction. 1999; first flown publicly in 2000 Milestone 4 Monica Helms Designs the Transgender Pride Flag Monica Helms designed the transgender pride flag in 1999, and it was first shown publicly in 2000. The symmetrical blue, pink and white stripes were designed so the flag is correct whichever way it is flown, reflecting that there is no wrong way to be trans. Late 2000s Milestone 5 Straight Ally Pride Flag Circulates By the late 2000s, the straight ally flag was circulating as a symbol for non-LGBTQ+ people who wanted to show visible support for LGBTQ+ equality without claiming identity-specific pride symbols as their own. The design combines black-and-white straight-flag stripes with a rainbow A or chevron for allyship. 2010 Milestone 6 Pansexual Pride Flag Created The pansexual pride flag is widely traced to 2010 and commonly attributed to Jasper V. Its pink, yellow and blue bands distinguish pansexual visibility from bisexual and rainbow Pride symbolism while emphasising attraction regardless of gender. 30 June 2010 Milestone 7 Asexual Pride Flag Created Through Community Vote The asexual pride flag was designed by AVEN user 'standup' and selected through a multi-stage community voting process. The flag features four horizontal stripes: black (asexuality), grey (grey-asexuality and demisexuality), white (allosexuality/allies), and purple (community). The purple was inspired by AVEN's website design. It has since become widely recognised in Pride events worldwide. 2010s Milestone 8 Online Orientation Pride Flags Expand in the 2010s During the 2010s, Tumblr, AVEN-adjacent spaces and other online LGBTQ+ communities accelerated the spread of orientation-specific pride flags. Designs for abrosexual, demiromantic, demisexual, gay men, greysexual and panromantic communities circulated with varying levels of creator attribution and standardisation. 2011 Milestone 9 Genderqueer Pride Flag Created by Marilyn Roxie Marilyn Roxie created the genderqueer pride flag in 2011. Lavender, white and green were chosen to mark androgyny and queerness, agender or neutral identity, and identities outside binary gender categories. 2012 Milestone 10 Polysexual Pride Flag Created The polysexual pride flag, commonly attributed to Tumblr user Samlin in 2012, uses pink, green and blue to mark attraction to women, nonbinary people and men while distinguishing polysexuality from pansexuality. 2012-2014 Milestone 11 Genderfluid Pride Flag Created The genderfluid pride flag emerged in the 2012-2014 period and is widely attributed to JJ Poole. Its pink, white, purple, black and blue stripes represent femininity, absence of gender, multiple genders, all genders and masculinity. 2014 Milestone 12 Aromantic Pride Flag Created by Cameron Whimsy Cameron Whimsy created the modern aromantic pride flag in 2014, using green tones, white, grey and black to represent the aromantic spectrum, non-romantic forms of love, grey-romantic and demiromantic experiences, and the wider sexuality spectrum. 2014 Milestone 13 Agender Pride Flag Created by Salem X Salem X created the agender pride flag in 2014. Its black, grey, white and green palette is commonly read as absence of gender, partial gender, all genders or neutrality, and nonbinary identity outside the pink-blue gender binary. 2014 Milestone 14 Demiboy and Demigirl Pride Flags Created The demiboy and demigirl pride flags are commonly attributed to Salem X or Salom X in 2014, with spelling varying by source. Both designs adapt grey and white neutrality language with blue or pink tones to express partial alignment with boyhood or girlhood. 2014 Milestone 15 Maverique Identity and Flag Enter Online Use The maverique identity term dates to 2014, while the exact flag attribution is less settled. The flag is presented cautiously as a community-use design for a gender that is autonomous and not defined by masculinity, femininity, neutrality or absence. 2014 Milestone 16 Nonbinary Pride Flag Created by Kye Rowan Kye Rowan created the nonbinary pride flag in 2014 to sit alongside, rather than replace, the genderqueer flag. Yellow, white, purple and black represent genders outside the binary, many or all genders, mixed gender experience and people without gender. 2015 Milestone 17 Omnisexual Pride Flag Created The omnisexual pride flag is commonly attributed to Tumblr user pastelmemer in 2015. Its pink, dark purple and blue palette signals attraction to women, nonbinary people and men while retaining a distinction from pansexuality by acknowledging gender within attraction. 2016 Milestone 18 Butch Pride Flag Created by Dorian Rutherford Dorian Rutherford created a butch pride flag in 2016 as one of several community designs for butch identity and gender expression. The flag uses warm tones and white to signal butch resilience, community and gender nonconformity. 2017 Milestone 19 Philadelphia POC Pride Flag Created Philadelphia's More Color More Pride campaign added black and brown stripes to the rainbow flag in 2017 to make racial inclusion explicit within Pride symbolism. The design is associated with the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs and Tierney. 2018 Milestone 20 Progress Pride Flag Created by Daniel Quasar Daniel Quasar created the Progress Pride Flag in 2018 by adding a hoist-side chevron to the six-colour rainbow. The chevron incorporates black and brown stripes for LGBTQ+ people of colour and pink, light blue and white from Monica Helms's Transgender Pride Flag. 2018 Milestone 21 Inclusive Lesbian Pride Flag Popularised The orange-pink lesbian pride flag associated with Emily Gwen was popularised in 2018 after earlier lesbian flags were contested. The commonly used five-stripe derivative simplified the design while retaining the inclusive colour language. 2010s Milestone 22 Online Gender Identity Pride Flags Expand in the 2010s Across the 2010s, online LGBTQ+ communities developed and circulated a growing family of gender-identity and derivative pride flags. Several designs, including agender boy, agender girl, androgyne, bigender, gender-questioning, genderflux, neutrois, transfeminine and transmasculine flags, have useful community meanings but less settled creator trails. 5 July 2013 Milestone 23 Intersex Pride Flag Created by Morgan Carpenter Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia created the intersex pride flag, featuring a purple circle on a golden yellow field. The colours were chosen as free from gender associations, and the unbroken circle symbolises wholeness. Released under Creative Commons, the flag was later incorporated into the Progress Pride Flag by Valentino Vecchietti in 2021. 2021 Milestone 24 Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag Created Valentino Vecchietti created the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag in 2021, adding the yellow field and purple circle of Morgan Carpenter's Intersex Flag to Daniel Quasar's Progress Pride design.
Direct Answers
Why this journey matters
This route turns the new flag milestones into a single learning path, pairing source-backed flag meanings with the timeline events that explain why those symbols emerged.
