In years past, I’ve written about the history of Pride month. I thought it was about time to write about Pride Flags since they’ve evolved so much over the years, and now there is not just one. In fact, when going to the HRC site, I found twenty-five different flags, representing almost everyone I could think of in our wonderful diverse community. Then, I found a picture with 128 versions, including an ally flag. When I was in New Orleans with my sister, we went into this shop that had all the different flags, and my sister wanted to buy an ally flag, but they were out. So, I went online and bought her one to hang on her gold cart and irritate the Trumpers in her stuffy retirement community. She loved it!
So…let’s delve into the rich history. Here are the most interesting tidbits I could find about Pride Flags:
- The original Pride Flag was a simple rainbow developed by Gilbert Baker, after Harvey Milk asked his friend to design something that represented what he referred to as the “gay” community. Baker collaborated with Lynn Segerblom (also known as Faerie Argyle Rainbow) to design the rainbow-striped flag with eight colors. Red signifies life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for serenity, and purple for spirit. This flag was debuted in 1978 in San Francisco at the Gay Freedom Day parade.
- In 2017 a black and brown stripe was added to the original flag to represent people of color in the queer community. Then, in 2019, the Progress Pride Flag was rolled out to include the trans community with a triangle of blue, white, and pink stripes taken from the trans flag.
- Rather than list all the different Pride Flags, here is a link to the HRC site that lists them all: https://www.hrc.org/resources/lgbtq-pride-flags
- Since I’m a lesbian I was very interested in the Lesbian Pride Flag, of which there are multiple historical versions. The first one, created in 1999 by gay graphic designer Sean Campbell, features a labrys, a double-headed axe, on top of an inverted black triangle against a violet background. The labrys was used as a weapon by the Amazons in mythology and as a symbol of empowerment by the lesbian feminist community in the 1970s. The flag was published in the Gay and Lesbian Times Pride issue in June 2000. Then came the different versions of the pink and orange striped flags, starting with the lipstick lesbian flag in 2010, which had a lipstick kiss in the upper left corner on top of different shades of pink, white, and orange. The other versions include a flag without the lipstick kiss but with the same colors and order, then a flag where the order of the shades of pink and orange are flipped, to a simplified five-color flag with fewer shades of pink and orange, to an original pride flag rainbow with the double venus symbol. The HRC site shows the simple 5-striped flag as the official Lesbian Pride Flag.
With all the recent uproar about flags and who is flying or carrying what flags, I especially feel a sense of pride that our community absolutely kicks ass with the number and variety versus the lame Trump flag, upside down American flag, religious, revolution, or confederate flags that the hard right comes up with. Ours are definitely more colorful and aesthetically pleasing to look at! Not sure that I have ever written a scene prominently showing off any of our Pride Flags, but perhaps that is something to tuck away for a future book. However, I most certainly highlight pride in many of my books. You know the drill, just click the links below to get any of my books. And for those of you who have hung in there, reading this entire blog, simply send me a direct message, and the first few folks to do that will receive a free promo code for my entire San Diego series audible books! Don’t forget to let me know if you need a US or UK code!
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Annette Mori 
If you have any codes left for the US I would love to get one but no problem if you are out of them.Enjoyed the article. I did a little research into Pride Flags recently. I do Legos with my roommate’s 6-year-old grandson, and we are making a Rainbow Flag with as many diverse strips as we can. Trying to finish it by the end of June.Anyway, thanks for all the info.
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Codes all given out, but I will be doing more giveaways this month…If you could send me a message through Facebook Messenger, that makes it easier to respond and get the codes to people!
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What was the ally flag like or did I miss it in reading?😁👍🌈
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Here is a link to Walmart where you can get one and it shows a pic of the ally flag: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lgbtq-Gay-Straight-Ally-Pride-Flag-Garden-Flag-Outdoor-Banner-Decoration-Yard-Farmhouse-Camping-Party-Slogan-Flags-3x5ft/5360842238
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