The first iteration of the Rainbow Pride Flag premiered in 1978 when Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California and a civil and human rights activist, asked Baker to sew a new symbol for the gay community. According to Gilber Baker’s memoir Rainbow Warrior: My Life In Color, a pink triangle (tied to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany) had been the symbol for the gay rights movement prior to his creation of the rainbow flag. The Rainbow Pride Flag is widely accepted as the most recognizable Pride Flag or Pride symbol internationally. Related: Funny Pride Memes What does the Rainbow Pride Flag stand for? “There are many pride flags that get overlayed with national and religious flags, it is common to see Mexican flags, Canadian flags, Rainbow crescents, and rainbow Stars of David (I even sell these in my shop), and these are always beautiful,” Simpson says. There are also other iterations of Pride Flags that vary from country to country, too. Just like states like Maryland and Arizona or Chicago have iconic flags that you see almost everywhere, some of the flag designs are more attractive and engaging than others.” “Like the state flags, many of these flags were designed by their various creators with certain intentionalities and symbolisms in mind, though the general framework of three to nine evenly distributed stripes has become a framework many follow. But obviously, the more specific you get, the less known and less agreed-upon the flags become,” Simpson adds. “Each city within each state likely has a flag too, or perhaps more than one that has been proposed, reflecting the diversity of our community. Simpson also co-authored the proposition to get Unicode to include the transgender flag in the recent emoji update. “When I describe the diverse Pride flags, I like to explain that if you were to consider the rainbow as the ‘United States of Pride Flag,’ then just as each state in our union has a flag, so does each state of being,” explains Hannah Simpson, a transgender activist who runs the LGBTQIA+ enamel pin Etsy shop, Changed Me. Throughout the years, some flags have also undergone different variations as well. There are at least 21 official LGBTQ+ flags that represent varying identities within the queer community.
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How many different LGBTQ+ flags are there? 1.Let’s take a look at LGBTQIA+ flags and gay flags-including all pride flags -and the meaning behind each of them. Flags are, after all, meant to be flown - loudly and proudly! Below, we’ll walk you through the origin, meaning and colors of 21 LGBTQ flags, from the original pride flag to new pride flags flown today, so that you can understand which identity each flag celebrates. Although the symbolic use of bright colors has long been connected to queer culture, these flags, fittingly, are a highly visible, widerspread signal of queer identity compared to some of the slightly more covert LGBTQ+ symbols that preceded them. Today, there are dozens of LGBTQ+ flags representing just as many gender identities, sexualities and intersections of communities. Much like the communities they represent, these flags are in a constant state of evolution, expanding to better and more inclusively encompass every queer identity under the rainbow. Ever since the first rainbow-hued LGBTQ flag was created in 1978, pride flags have been a colorful symbol of queer identity.