Why is it so important to keep involving and evolving? This variant is called the Progress LBGT+ flag. The arrow pointing to the right represents forward movement, but being along the left edge it shows that progress still needs to be made.

The following year, a queer designer & activist called Daniel Quasar released a flag with emphasis on inclusion and progression by incorporating elements of the original six-colour flag: the colour brown for marginalised people of colour, black for those living with AIDS, those no longer living, and the stigma surrounding them and the trans pride flag, light blue, light pink and white. These colours symbolise diversity and inclusivity, respectively, and were included to show solidarity for the struggles LGBT people of colour especially face. Most notably, in 2017 for Philadelphia Pride, black and brown stripes were added at the top. The rainbow flag is ever changing and the creativity and the individual needs of the queer community have caused it to spawn to new and different versions over the years. Australia also has its own 'Wear it Purple Day.' These are days to raise awareness and confront homophobia, and are typically celebrated by donning purple attire. The latter has spun off into its own holiday of sorts: the third Thursday of October is known as Spirit Day in the U.S., while the Netherlands has its own Purple Friday on the second Friday of December. Those being red, symbolising life orange, symbolising healing yellow, symbolising sunlight green, symbolising nature blue (formerly indigo) symbolising harmony or serenity and violet or purple, symbolising spirit. The six colours, of course, each have a meaning. For the next two years, the flag would have seven colours, until turquoise suffered the same fate, leaving us with the iconic six-colour design. Due to increased demand for the flag and the high cost to produce hot pink fabric, the pink stripe was dropped. The original design was first conceived in 1978, and had two more colours than the current design: pink (symbolising sexuality) and turquoise (symbolising magic and art).

The original flag was made by artist and activist Gilbert Baker, after being proposed by Harvey Milk himself, who was keen to replace the (then often-used) pink triangle as the main symbol for the LBGT movement (due to its dark history as a former nazi symbol). But did you know that it wasn’t the original design? And that new flags are popping up all over the world? Members of the LGBTQIA+ community use all kinds of colours in all kinds of flags to create a variety of queer symbols. The six-colour rainbow flag will probably be the flag waved the most around the world during pride.

Pride flag colors