Philly's Pride Flag Explained
It’s Pride Month and you might have noticed that the rainbow flag in Philly is a little different.
The original rainbow flag designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker – who’s sometimes called “the gay Betsy Ross” – had eight stripes, versus the six you might see on a typical Pride flag.
Baker assigned each of the original colors meaning: pink for sex …
Red for life …
Orange for healing …
Yellow for sunlight …
Green for nature …
Turquoise for magic and art …
Blue for serenity …
… and purple for the spirit of LGBTQ people.
Baker later revised the flag’s design due to limited fabric supply and display logistics, ultimately dropping the pink and turquoise stripes, resulting in the six-stripe standard most commonly used to this day.
In 2017, Philadelphia debuted its own Pride flag design – “More Color, More Pride” – designed by Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs and design agency Tierney featuring two additional stripes.
Black and brown represent the legacy of the decades of activism for a more intersectional lens on queer rights.
Inspired by the Philadelphia Pride flag, Portland designer Daniel Quasar created the Progress Pride flag in 2018, where the black and brown sit in chevron, along with the colors of the trans flag: light blue, light pink, and white. This redesign aims to elevate people of color, trans, and nonbinary folks, and those living with or lost to HIV/AIDS.
In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti added a yellow chevron with a purple circle to the Progress Pride flag to include the intersex community.
No matter what version of the Pride flag you see, remember that each one was born out of protest.
Pride is as much about collective struggle as it is defiant celebration. LGBTQ communities continue to fight for their rights to health care, as well as safe school and work environments.
Want to learn more? You can listen to how to make your workplace more equitable for trans people, read about how Rue Landau is poised to become Philadelphia's first openly LGBTQ City Council member, or attend one of many Pride events happening across the city this month.
Happy Pride, Philly.
Staff Contributors
- Design/development: Charmaine Runes, Sam Morris
- Editing: Sam Morris