The rainbow flag or pride flag is a symbol of LGBT pride and LGBT social movements. The colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community and the spectrum of human sexuality and gender. Using a rainbow flag as a symbol of LGBT pride began in San Francisco, California, but eventually became common at LGBT rights events worldwide.
Originally devised by the artists Gilbert Baker, Lynn Segerblom, James McNamara and other activists, the design underwent several revisions after its debut in 1978, and continues to inspire variations. Although Baker’s original rainbow flag had eight colors, from 1979 to the present day the most common variant consists of six stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The flag is typically displayed horizontally, with the red stripe on top, as it would be in a natural rainbow.
LGBT people and allies currently use rainbow flags and many rainbow-themed items and color schemes as an outward symbol of their identity or support. There are derivations of the rainbow flag that are used to focus attention on specific causes or groups within the community (e.g. transgender people, fighting the AIDS epidemic, inclusion of LGBT people of color). In addition to the rainbow, many other flags and symbols are used to communicate specific identities within the LGBT community.
Variations:
Original Gilbert Baker Design
Inspired by the lyrics of Judy Garland’s Over the Rainbow, and the designs used by other social movements such as black civil rights groups from the 1960s, the Rainbow Flag was created. Baker hand-dyed and hand sewed this flag which flew at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day in June 1978.
Seven-color version due to unavailability of pink fabric
Following the assassination of Harvey Milk in 1978, many people and organisations adopted the Pride flag that he helped to introduce to the community. The demand was so great for a rainbow striped flag, it was impossible for the 8-stripe design to be made in large quantities. Both Paramount and Baker struggled to obtain the hot pink fabric and so began manufacturing a 7-stripe version.
Traditional Gay Pride Flag
In 1979 the design was amended again. The community finalised this six-colour version and this is now the most familiar and recognisable design for the LGBT flag. Numerous complications over the odd number of stripes, including the desire to split the flag to decorate Pride parades, meant that one colour had to be dropped.
The turquoise and indigo stripes were combined to create a royal blue stripe and it was agreed that the flag should typically be flown horizontally, with red at the top, as it would be in a natural rainbow. This design continued to increase in popularity around the world, being a focal point of landmark decisions such as John Stout fighting for his right to fly the flag from his apartment balcony in 1989.
Progress Pride Flag
In June 2018, designer and activist Daniel Quasar released an updated version of the Pride flag. Combining the new elements of the Philadelphia design and the Transgender flag to bring focus on further inclusion and progress. This new flag added a chevron to the hoist of the traditional 6-colour flag which represents marginalised LGBTQ+ communities of colour, those living with HIV/AIDS and those who’ve been lost, and trans and non-binary persons.
This design went viral and was quickly adopted by people and pride parades across the world. The arrow of the chevron points to the right to show forward movement, while being on the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made for full equality, especially for the communities the chevron represents.
Intersex Inclusive Progress Pride Flag
In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK adapted the Pride Progress flag design to incorporate the intersex flag, creating the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag 2021.
The intersex community uses the colours purple and yellow as an intentional counterpoint to blue and pink, which have traditionally been seen as binary, gendered colours. The symbol of the circle represents the concept of being unbroken and being whole, symbolising the right of Intersex people to make decisions about their own bodies.
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- 🐻 Link to all Hexbear comms https://hexbear.net/post/1403966
- 🐼 Hexbear Matrix Chat https://matrix.to/#/#Hexbear:matrix.org
- 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies
- 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread https://hexbear.net/post/8466891
- ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread https://hexbear.net/post/8530168
- 🏳️⚧️ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread https://hexbear.net/post/8652602
- 👊 New Weekly Improvement thread https://hexbear.net/post/8648910
- 🧡 Disabled comm megathread https://hexbear.net/post/8652673
- ☕ Parenting Chat https://hexbear.net/post/8595169
- 🐉 Anime & Manga discussion thread https://hexbear.net/post/8650435
- 🎩Fashion megathread https://hexbear.net/post/7228810
- 🎨 Art & Drawings megathread https://hexbear.net/post/8430281
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
Financial Support to the Bearsite
Link to the 🐼 Hexbear Matrix Chat https://matrix.to/#/#Hexbear:matrix.org
Gotta love my mom acting like weed is heroin for 15 years only to enthusiastically offer me hydrocodone when i complain about neck pain
I finally watched Buffy in 2024, and now 3 of the main cast members are dead tsk tsk
They should make a movie theater where it’s just like 100 bathtubs so you can take a nice hot bath while watching the movie. No one would see you because you don’t take your pants off until it’s dark.
Oh no Stellar Blade 2 is being made.
And the main character is… Oh no… Oh no its even worse than I thought
Coordinating The Function and you got one group that’s 15 minutes early and one group that’s 15 minutes late, couldn’t be ME showing up at the actual appointed time
I got your screw worm right here grabs crotchGetting wine drunk with my almost certainly non binary mum and see if I can gently push her into being my new dad as I really hate the other guy.
The concept of cia agents intentionally spreading lone star ticks to kill the meat industry.
AGENT Sigma: “wtf why we do this”
AGENT Alpha: “idk we are bored man”
why dont final destination characters just play persona 3 and accept memento mori listen to lotus juice and then die or something idk instead of trying outsmart the Grim Reaper.
CW: unhappy
Nobody will talk to me because I’m not fun enough to talk to -> I get worse at talking to people because I don’t get to talk to anyone -> Nobody will talk to me because I’m not fun enough to talk to
My partner’s interview today went nuts i think. I think they want her badddd. Because they basically just described to her the job and were like “so do you think that’ll be okay?” and didn’t really ask her anything about her, just like giving her a tour and shit. I think the interviewer liked her too because they were like “here you’ll appreciate this” showing her their laminated excel cheat sheet, nerd shit, etc.
Idk maybe i’m jumping the gun but i think when an interview goes like that it’s basically like, you’re the best candidate we’ve got so far
These people have MONEY, chat, what the fuck. It’s like petty bourgeois Boat Dealership King over here. They have their own fucking private healthcare clinic??? That they said employees can use with no copay??
They have a private fucking JET. that they used to fly ONE STATE OVER. They got money
How do we get her the highest salary possible?? i’m thinking she can get paid over 100k if i’m right in that they want her
it’s so fucking joever
