Rainbow pride flag

The first pride flag, designed in 1978, and still the one most people mean by the pride flag.

What the colours mean

Red Life.
Orange Healing.
Yellow Sunlight.
Green Nature.
Blue Serenity and harmony.
Violet Spirit.

Where it comes from

The rainbow flag was designed by the artist and activist Gilbert Baker and first flown in San Francisco in June 1978, at the city's Gay Freedom Day celebration. Baker deliberately chose not to patent it: he wanted it to belong to everyone.

The original eight stripes

Baker's first version had eight stripes: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic and art, indigo for serenity and violet for spirit.

Hot pink was dropped early because the fabric was hard to find. Turquoise was later removed, and indigo became a royal blue, giving the six-stripe flag that is most common today.

How it is used

The rainbow flag stands for LGBTQ+ people as a whole. It is the flag most often flown at Pride, and the base of several later designs, including the Progress Pride flag. Many people who fly a more specific flag fly the rainbow as well.

Questions people ask

What do the colours of the rainbow flag mean?

Red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for serenity and violet for spirit.

Who designed the rainbow flag?

Gilbert Baker, in 1978, in San Francisco.

Why did the rainbow flag have eight stripes?

Baker's original design included hot pink and turquoise. Both were later removed, partly because the fabric was hard to source, leaving six stripes.

In the glossary

Allyship Coming out Outing

Other pride flags

Transgender flagLight blue, pink and white, in a pattern that reads the same whichever way up you fly it.Progress Pride flagThe rainbow flag with a chevron that brings people of colour and trans people to the front.Bisexual flagPink, purple and blue, with the purple where the other two overlap.Pansexual flagPink, yellow and blue: attraction regardless of gender, with a stripe for people outside the binary.Asexual flagBlack, grey, white and purple, chosen by the asexual community itself in 2010.Demisexual flagThe asexual flag's colours, rearranged around a black chevron.Aromantic flagFive stripes from green to black, with green chosen as the opposite of romance's reds and pinks.Genderfluid flagFive stripes for a gender that moves: femininity, the absence of gender, the mix, all genders and masculinity.Agender flagSeven symmetrical stripes, with black and white for the absence of gender and green for non-binary genders.Genderqueer flagLavender, white and green: androgyny, agender identities and genders outside the binary.Intersex flagA yellow field and a purple circle, in colours chosen to be free of gender associations.Demiboy flagGreys, light blue and white: a partial connection to being a boy or a man.Demigirl flagGreys, pink and white: a partial connection to being a girl or a woman.