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In the LGBTQ+ community there are a wide variety of symbols.

Some have faded from their original meaning and some have moved into prominence.

Pink Triangle- Originally used by the SS to signify Homosexualy prisoners in concentration camps Reclaimed by LGBTQ+ activist groups in the 1980’s specifically used by ACT UP in their Silence = Death campaign in the lack of response of the Reagan Administration to the AIDS crisis.

The purple hand can be traced back to a protest in 1969: After the San Francisco Examiner printed a homophobic report on gay bars, locals protested outside the paper’s offices. Employees dumped ink onto the protestors, who then used the ink to slap hand-prints along the building to show that they had been there.

Lambda represents energy and balance, and was primarily used by the Gay Activists Alliance in the 1970s.

Green carnations first appeared when Oscar Wilde adopted them for his entourage in the late 1800s.

During the Renaissance a male looking for another male would often wear a Blue Feather in their cap.

Generally the ace of hearts is used to represent asexuals who feel romantic attraction. The ace of spades can be used to represent aromantic asexuals, or is sometimes used as an umbrella symbol for all asexuals and ace-spec people. The ace of diamonds and the ace of clubs are less commonly seen. The ace of diamonds is most commonly associated with demisexuals and sometimes greyasexuals as well. The ace of clubs is commonly associated with greyasexuals, but also sometimes is used for people who are questioning where they fall on the asexual spectrum.

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The Origin of the Rainbow Pride Flag

The history of the Pride flag can be traced back to Harvey Milk, the famous San Francisco city Supervisor, and his friend Gilbert Baker in the 1970s.
Baker had served in the Army, and moved to San Francisco following his honorable discharge. There, he befriended Milk, who challenged him to create a symbol for what was then more commonly called the gay community.
Baker and a friend named Lynn Segerblom, also known as Faerie Argyle Rainbow, developed a rainbow version that had eight colors, with a hot pink stripe later removed because it was difficult to dye.

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Though it was often called the “Gay Pride Flag” at first, it’s now come to represent a much broader community than just gay men.
Today, Pride is much more inclusive of lesbians, bisexual people, and people who are trans or poly or asexual or queer. “Gay” as a catch-all term for anything gender-nonconforming is a fast-vanishing vestige of patriarchy.

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The Meaning of the Colors

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The Progressive Pride Flag

Representation matters — especially for the most marginalized communities.
The six-color rainbow pride flag we know well has served to symbolize the queer community since its emergence in 1978, but the queer community has evolved over the past few decades, leading many to question whether the pride flag still caters to those most marginalized in the community, including queer people of color and trans people.
It’s a dilemma Portland-based designer Daniel Quasar (who uses xe/xem pronouns) has sought to resolve with a vividly-modified redesign of the iconic flag. Quasar’s proposed flag includes the colors of the trans flag, as well as black and brown stripes which sought to further represent the queer and trans identities of black and brown people.

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The Progressive Pride Flag

Those two stripes also represent those living with HIV/AIDS, people who have passed from the virus and the overall stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS that remains today.
The new stripes appear as a “hoist” to the right of the original Pride flag colors, and on Facebook, Quasar wrote that the traditional six stripes “should be separated from the newer stripes because of their difference in meaning, as well as to shift focus and emphasis to what is important in our current community climate.
Quasar’s design attempts to integrate the full scope of all queer and trans folk, and account for multifaceted histories within the community.

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The Intersex-Inclusion Progressive Pride Flag

The Intersex-Inclusion is the latest version of the Progressive Pride Flag. Intersex columnist and media personality Valentino Vecchietti designed the new rendition of the rainbow Pride flag.
The flag was officially unveiled by the advocacy group Intersex Equality Rights UK in late May, but has since spread virally on social media.
In Vecchietti’s rendition, a purple circle superimposed over a yellow triangle has been added to the chevron on the left half of Quasar’s design — an homage to the popular 2013 intersex flag designed by Australian bioethicist and researcher Morgan Carpenter.

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The Intersex-Inclusion Progressive Pride Flag

The intersex community uses the colors of purple and yellow as an intentional counterpoint to blue and pink, which have traditionally been seen as binary, gendered colors.
There’s a deeper meaning behind the circle, too. In a 2020 video for Intersex Peer Support Australia, Carpenter explains that the symbol of the circle is “about being unbroken, about being whole,” adding that “it symbolizes the right to make our own decisions about our own bodies.”
In a sense, then, Vecchietti’s flag marks a return — and then some — to the splendor of Baker’s original design, featuring 11 distinct colors and a visually-arresting layout.

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Transgender Pride Flag

Monica Helms, a trans woman and veteran, created the first and still best-known Transgender Pride Flag in 1999.
Her blue and pink colors were intended to represent the gender binary, with the white accounting for nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people.
Similar to Baker’s rainbow flag, Helms’ flag has had several redesigns over the years to better serve people of varying intersections.
According to Helms, the flag is symmetrical so “no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.”

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Pansexual Pride Flag

The pansexual pride flag has three horizontal stripes: pink, yellow, and blue. According to most definitions, the pink represents people who are female identified, the blue represents people who are male identified, while the yellow represents nonbinary attraction.

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For a more extended list of Pride flags access the site

https://outrightinternational.org/content/flags-lgbtiq-community

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Let’s see what you’ve learned

Take this quiz to check your Pride flag IQ

https://www.buzzfeed.com/deeplyaveragefourthgrader/how-well-do-you-know-your-lgbt-pride-flags-ab0nfwc6di

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Now it’s time to celebrate and let your flag fly!

This video on flag design created by the Designers Institute of New Zealand does a fantastic job describing the 5 elements of design.

1) Simplicity

2)Color

3) The Rule of Thirds

4) Symmetry/Asymmetry

5) Context

Consider your favorite symbol and how you may be able to incorporate it into your flag

Utilize the flag designer to create a digital flag https://flag-designer.appspot....

Go above and beyond and physically construct a paper or cloth flag.

Bring your flag to class to be flown alongside the other students flags.