LGBTIQ+: LGBTIQ+ Home

Many LGBTQ+ people express their identity and their pride by using flags. 

The first pride flag was the eight-striped rainbow flag made by the artist Gilbert Baker in 1978.

The different colours represent the following: 

• Pink: Sexuality
• Red: Life
• Orange: Healing
• Yellow: Sunlight
• Green: Nature
• Turquoise: Art & magic
• Blue: Peace & harmony
• Purple: Spirit

However, due to expensive dye costs, the pink and turquoise stripes were removed from the design in 1979, leaving us with the more familiar six-striped gay pride flag.

Common alternate designs include:

• The Progress Pride Flag, designed by Daniel Quasar. This has features stripes of brown and black to portray marginalised LGBTIQ+ people of colour, as well as blue, pink, and white to incorporate the colours of the transgender pride flag into its design.

Some other members of the LGBTIQ+ community use different flags to express themselves and celebrate their identities.

Here are some examples:

LESBIAN FLAG (designed by Emily Gwen)

The different colours represent the following:

• Dark Orange: Gender nonconformity
• Middle Orange: Independence
• Light Orange: The lesbian community
• White: Unique relationships to womanhood
• Light Pink: Peace and serenity
• Middle Pink: Love and sex
• Dark Pink: Femininity

BISEXUAL FLAG (designed by Michael Page)

The different colours represent the following:

• Magenta: Attraction to the same gender 
• Purple: Attraction to people regardless of gender
• Blue: Attraction to the 'opposite' gender

TRANSGENDER FLAG (designed by Monica Helms)

The different colours represent the following:

• Blue: The traditional masculine colour
• Pink: The traditional feminine colour
• White: Those who are transitioning, or consider themselves to have a neutral or undefined gender