Get ready to brush up on your flag knowledge
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY ANNA SHVETS
Pride Month is in full swing which means one thing – your high street is about to look like a rainbow swallowed it whole. Pride is a special time where people are able to express themselves through their clothing, makeup, hair… and the flags they may hold.
Here is our guide to some of the flags you might see blowing in the breeze this June.
Gay Pride flag
Designed by Gilbert Baker in 1977, this multicolour extravaganza is usually the flag you might associate with the LGBTQIA community. Each band of colour on the flag was designed by Gilbert to represent something special to the queer community. Red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, blue for serenity and purple for the spirit.
Lesbian flag
Emily Gwen developed the lesbian flag in 2018, creating a beautiful array of oranges and pinks. As with Gilbert’s rainbow flag, each stripe of the lesbian flag has an assigned meaning. Working from top to bottom these stripes represent: gender nonconformity, independence, community, unique relationships to womanhood, serenity and peace, love and sex, and lastly femininity.
Trans flag
US navy veteran Monica Helms designed the first trans flag in 1999 as a symbol of trans diversity and rights. The colours pink and blue were used on the flag to correlate with colours that have traditionally been associated with men and women, and the white in the centre represents the non-binary community.
Bisexual flag
In order to raise visibility for bisexual people, Michael Page designed the bisexual flag in 1998. The pink is meant to represent same sex attraction, the blue attraction to the opposite sex, and the purple encapsulates attraction to all genders.
Pansexual flag
Formed online in 2010, the pansexual flag has been used to champion those who feel attraction to people of all genders. The pink represents attraction to women, the blue to men, and the yellow for nonbinary or gender nonconforming folk.
Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag
In 2017 Daniel Quasar adapted the original rainbow flag so that it took into account the experiences of queer people of colour and trans members of the community. Our very own Valentino Vecchietti then redesigned this Progress Flag to incorporate the intersex flag in 2021.
Asexual Pride flag
Created by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network in 2010, the asexual flag has been used to amplify the voices of people on the asexual spectrum. Purple represents community, white represents non-asexual allies and partners, grey represents demisexuality and grey-asexuality, and finally black represents asexuality.
Non-binary flag
In 2014, Kye Rowan decided that it was time for non binary members of the community to have a flag to fly. Wanting to stay away from traditional binary colours that represent gender, the flag is made up of yellow for people whose gender doesn’t exist within the binary, white for people with all genders or many genders, purple for people with genders that may be a mix of female and male and black represents people that identify as not having any gender at all.
Genderqueer flag
Advocate and writer Marilyn Roxie designed the genderqueer flag in 2012 for people who do not subscribe to cishet gender norms. The three striped flag consists of lavender to express queer identities and androgyny, white to represent gender-neutral and agender identities, and chartreuse to represent identities that aren’t in the gender binary as well as the third gender.
Genderfluid flag
To represent the fluidity of gender for some members of the community, agender activist JJ Poole created the genderfluid flag. Made up of five horizontal stripes, they represent: pink for femininity, blue for masculinity, purple for femininity and masculinity, black for lack of gender, and white for all genders.
Intersex flag
The most commonly used intersex flag was designed by Morgan Carpenter in 2013 in the colours yellow and purple to stray away from traditional gendered colours. Morgan described the circle in the centre to show “unbroken and unornamented, symbolising wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities. We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how we want to be.”
DIVA magazine celebrates 29 years in print in 2023. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
