What are the lgbt pride flags?

Discover the different LGBT+ pride flags and their meanings.

The LGBTQIA+ community is made up of a wide range of people, with different gender identities and romantic or sexual orientations. Each color on the spectrum has its own meaning and symbolism, and the community’s flags reflect this in unique ways.

Here’s an overview of most of the flags:

Rainbow LGBTQ+ pride flag

The rainbow flag is undoubtedly the best-known flag of the LGBT community. It was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker to symbolize the unity and diversity of the community. Each color has a specific meaning: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for the spirit.

And its latest version, the inclusive rainbow pride flag:

Pride flags associated with BDSM

Leather pride flag

Although originally representing members of the leather subculture, the leather flag has also been adopted by the wider BDSM and fetish community.
Designed by Tony DeBlase for the International Mr. Leather celebration in Chicago in 1989, on the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the symbol represents those involved in kink including those who are heterosexual and/or cisgender.

BDSM Pride flag

The BDSM flag of the LGBTQ+ community represents the different facets of their sexuality as well as their membership of the BDSM community. The most common version of the BDSM flag is a horizontal band of colors with a Triskel at its center, and made up of three colors: black, blue and red.
Black represents domination and sado-masochism, blue represents role-playing and sexuality in general, while red represents the passion filling the Triskel, symbol of the community.

Latex pride flag

The latex flag represents the members of the rubber and latex fetish community.
The black color of the flag represents leather itself, while the red symbolizes the group’s passion for rubber and the yellow represents their desire to play and fantasize intensely with rubber.
It dates back to 1995, created by Peter Tolos and Scott Moats.

Puppy pride flag

The puppy flag represents adult humans who like to embody and/or adopt the characteristics of dogs or puppies. Quite popular in the gay community, this practice is associated with Pet Play, part of BDSM in the broadest sense.

Pony pride flag

The Pony flag represents the followers of PonyPlay, a category of PetPlay where practitioners embody and/or adopt the characteristics of an equine. It can be found in BDSM in the broadest sense, and can include Discipline with dressage, Domination/submission, and even Bondage with certain constraints.

Master / Slave pride flag

The Master/Slave flag represents the dynamics of domination/submission within the context of consensual slavery. The vision of this dynamic differs in the community, but it is commonly accepted that it represents an even greater implication than the submissive person. Some groups see in this relationship the total submission of the slave’s will, goods and body.
Designed by Master Tallen for the Master/Slave Conference in Washington, D.C., July 29, 2005

Bootblacking pride flag

The “Bootblack” or “Bootblacking” flag represents people who like to clean, polish and sometimes blacken a pair of boots, usually those of a Dominant or Master / Mistress. It’s a common service in BDSM circles, particularly in leather fetish communities.

Little pride flag

The Little flag, represents an adult person taking on a childlike appearance and/or behavior, from baby to teenager, at particular times.

There are different categories of Littles

• Adult Baby representing babies
• Littles, representing children
• Middles, representing teenagers

DDlg pride flag

The DDLG flag (Daddy Dom, Little Girl) represents people in a Domination/submission dynamic, in which one plays the role of Daddy (also called Caregiver) and the other that of a child. The relationship between Daddy and Little may or may not be sexual.

ABDL Pride flag

The ABDL (Adult Baby Diaper Lover) flag represents people who enjoy age-regression games and infantilization, and/or who like to wear diapers.

Most popular Pride flags

Trans pride flag

The trans flag represents people whose gender identity does not correspond to the gender assigned to them at birth.
It was created in 1999 by Monica Helms.

Lesbian pride flag

The lesbian flag represents a person who experiences sexual or romantic attraction to other women or between women. The term normally applies to women, but some non-binary people also identify with it.
The original Labrys lesbian flag was created in 1999.
The first “modern” lesbian flag was designed in 2010 with the “Lipstick” lesbian flag, this flag was then modified by removing the kiss and has been used more as a lesbian pride flag.
There’s also the “Butch” flag

Other forms of the lesbian flag :

Butch

Bisexual pride flag

The bisexual flag (often abbreviated to bi) represents people who are attracted to more than one gender, from 2 to all genders, with or without preference. These genders may or may not be binary.
The flag was designed by a team led by LGBT activist Michael Page in 1998.

Pansexual pride flag

The pansexual flag (often abbreviated to pan) represents people who experience sexual attraction to individuals without gender identity being a factor.
While pansexual people may have a sexual preference for a certain gender identity, gender is not a factor in attraction.
This flag was created in 2010 by shrikeabyssals. from an organization called Pansexual Pride Flag.

Asexual pride flag

The asexual flag (often abbreviated to ace) represents people with an absence of sexual attraction. Asexuality can include not wanting to have sex, not being interested in sex, not having a libido or being repulsed by sex.
This flag was created on June 30, 2010 by user Standup of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network community.

Intersex pride flag

The intersex flag represents people born with physical sex characteristics that cannot be traditionally classified as “male” or “female”.
Variations may appear in chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, gonads, secondary sexual characteristics, or a combination of these.
Some intersex traits are identified at birth, while others may not be discovered until puberty or later in life.
Intersex people can have any gender identity, including male, female, non-binary, etc. Intersex is not an identity, but a birth characteristic.
This flag was created by Morgan Carpenter in 2013.

Lesser-known pride flags

Gay men pride flag

This flag represents male gay pride, it’s a re-imagining of a previous gay pride flag with a variety of blue tones. This new flag includes a broader spectrum of LGBT men, including transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming men, among others.
However, it’s fair to say that most gay men prefer to use the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag, which is more representative of the community as a whole.

Bear pride flag

The bear flag depicts homosexual men with a specific set of physical traits, including facial hair and a heavy build, and they were awarded their own flag in 1995. The flag’s dark brown, orange/rust, golden yellow, tan, white, gray and black stripes represent the colors of the animal’s fur.

Twink pride flag

The twink flag represents a subset of gay men (but also some non-binary) who often bottom out, defying traditional masculinity by adopting gendered, feminine characteristics.

A twink is often depicted as a slim man with no facial hair and often no body hair, who may or may not dress in a non-traditionally masculine manner.

Genderfluid pride flag

The genderfluid flag represents people whose gender identity and/or expression is fluid and can fluctuate at different times or in different circumstances.
This flag was created by JJ Poole in 2013.

Aromantic pride flag

The aromantic flag represents people who don’t experience romantic attraction or who experience it in a non-traditional way
This flag was created in 2014.

Demiboy pride flag

The demiboy flag represents people who identify with certain aspects of masculinity, regardless of the gender they were assigned at birth.

Tumblr user Transrants designed the demiboy flag in 2015.

Demigirl pride flag

The demigirl flag represents people who identify with certain aspects of femininity, regardless of the gender they were assigned at birth.
It was designed by Tumblr user Transrants in July 2015.

Demigender pride flag

The demi-gender flag comes from demi “half” + “gender”, it’s an umbrella term for non-binary gender identities and refers to people who feel only partially bound to a particular gender identity.
The term encompasses half-boy and half-girl, as well as a variety of other half-gender identities.

Androgyne pride flag

The androgyne flag represents a person with a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics in an ambiguous form. Androgyny can be expressed in relation to biological sex, gender identity and/or gender expression.
The androgynous flag features three vertical stripes and was created on July 24, 2014 by Tumblr user saveferris.

Polyamory pride flag

The polyamory flag represents people who desire or engage in multiple romantic and usually sexual relationships, with the consent of all involved.

Jim Evans created the first polyamorous pride flag in 1995. This flag consists of blue, red and black bars, with the Greek letter pi in the middle.
There are many explanations for the pi symbol in the middle of the flag. However, the most logical and widely accepted is that it represents infinite love between partners.
Like other LGBTQ+ flags, the polyamorous flag has gone through many variations after various members of the community deemed the original flag undesirable, but this original flag remains the most accepted and commonly seen.

New version :

Bicurious pride flag

The bicurious flag represents predominantly monosexual people who are curious about or open to relationships with people of a gender other than that of their usual partners. They are generally considered to be in a state of exploring sexuality or questioning bisexuality.
It was created by Tumblr user Arco-Pluris on July 5, 2018.

Omnisexual pride flag

The omnisexual flag represents people with a multisexual orientation defined as a sexual, romantic or other attraction to all genders, even though gender usually plays a role in this attraction. Some omnisexuals have a gender preference, others don’t.
The omnisexual flag was designed by Pastelmemer on or before July 4, 2015.

Polysexual pride flag

The polysexual flag represents people with a sexual attraction to many, but not necessarily all, genders. A polysexual person can be attracted to almost all genders with some exceptions,this implies an attraction to more than two genders and less than all genders is possible.
The flag was created by user Samlin on Tumblr in 2012.

Demisexual pride flag

The demisexual flag represents people with a sexual orientation on the asexual spectrum, not experiencing sexual attraction until they’ve established a deep emotional bond with someone.
Demisexuality can be a sexual orientation in itself or combined with other orientations.
It is not known when the demisexual flag was created or by whom.

Demiromantic pride flag

The demiromantic flag represents people with a romantic orientation of the aromatic spectrum, defined as someone who doesn’t feel romantic attraction until they’ve established a deep emotional bond with someone.
Demiromanticism can be a romantic orientation in itself or combined with other orientations.
These people may be sexually attracted to strangers or other people, but romantically attracted only to those with whom they have developed a deep emotional chemistry.

Trigender pride flag

Trigender is a form of multigender in which a person has three distinct gender identities. These three gender identities can be any gender, binary or non-binary, as long as there are three of them. Trigender people can live these genders simultaneously or alternately.
The trigender flag was created by an unknown person on or before July 4, 2015.

Abrosexual pride flag

The abrosexual flag represents people whose sexuality is changeable or fluid. A person can move from one sexuality to another, whether monosexual, multisexual, queer or asexual, etc….
The flag was created by Mod Chad of pride-flags-for-us at the request of another anonymous user, and has been around since July 3, 2015.

Straight ally pride flag

The straight ally flag designates a cisgender, heterosexual heteroromantic, allosexual alloromantic person who is not part of the LGBT+ community but who supports it. An ally recognizes that LGBT+ people are discriminated against and therefore socially disadvantaged, supports LGBT+ rights and fights against homophobia, transphobia, etc.
This flag was created in the late 2000s, but its origin is unknown.

A large number of flags are available to help people rally, support and recognize each other.

Ask any questions you may have in the comments, and I’ll be happy to answer them.
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