It hasn't been long since London was filled with hundreds of Union Jacks, in honour, of course, of The Queen’s Jubilee.
But it’s time to make way for a new flag. Yes, it’s the Pride flag, but crucially it’s not the same Pride rainbow flag that we all probably know. Valentino Vecchietti, founder of Intersex Equality Rights UK decided it was time for a revamp (because everything needs a bit of a refresher every so often), adding a purple circle on yellow background to incorporate the voices of intersex people.
Intersex is a term meaning people born with sex characteristics that do not fit into the singular binary definition of male or female. These sexual characteristics can be internal, such as sexual organs or chromosomes, or they can be external, like body hair and breast growth.
But Vecchietti’s addition to the Pride Flag is only the most recent revamp. It has gone through many changes over the years. So we’re going to take you on a little journey, and give you the lowdown on its history.
The rainbow base design of the Pride flag wasn’t actually created until the 1970s. Until then, one of the only symbols to represent the queer community had been the pink triangle, created by Nazi Germany, to identify gay men.
Some of the queer community tried to reclaim it, but understandably, other members of the community wanted a new symbol, one that was far away from its bleak backstory.
In 1977, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker was convinced by friends, filmmaker Artie Bressan and Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, to create an image for the gay community.
It took some convincing and a change of heart though, as Baker was initially against the idea of flags, thinking they represented patriotism. The previous year, 1976, the 200th anniversary of the creation of the United States as an independent republic, and flags had been absolutely everywhere.
‘After the orgy of bunting and hoopla surrounding the Bicentennial, I thought of flags in a new light. I discovered the depth of their power, their transcendent, transformational quality. I thought of the emotional connection they hold,’ Baker explains on his website.
The idea came about after Baker went to a show at the Winterland Ballroom, seeing the crowd dance around and have fun.
‘Dance fused us, magical and cleansing. We were all in a swirl of colour and light. It was like a rainbow,’ he said.
And there you have it, Baker decided to stitch together the colours of the rainbow to create the original Pride flag. And did you know? The eight original colours each had their own meaning.
Hot pink: Sex
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Turquoise: Magic/Art
Indigo: Serenity
Violet: Spirit
Two new revamps came about after this. After Harvey Milk’s assassination in 1978, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, organisations used the flag to celebrate his accomplishments. So the flag grew in popularity.
This sadly meant that the demand for the flag overtook the amount of hot pink fabric being manufactured. So a new seven-stripe version was born without the pink colour.
The flag was amended again in 1979 to make it an even number of stripes, for logistical reasons. The turquoise and indigo stripes were combined to become a single royal blue stripe. The new six-stripe Pride flag became the most famous version and is the one most of us know today, seen at Pride events all around the world.
Since then, there have been calls for greater inclusion, to represent the breadth of experiences of queer people. Like in 2017, when Philadelphia added two stripes to the six-stripe design to highlight the struggles of queer people of colour. And in 1999, when Monica Helms created the Transgender flag, made up of five light blue, pink and white stripes.
Another design was made by designer Daniel Quasar that combined the Transgender flag colours, and the new brown and black colours. It was named the Progress Pride Flag and he also wanted the black stripe to represent those affected by HIV/AIDS.
‘This new design forces the viewer to reflect on their own feelings towards the original Pride flag and its meaning, as well as the differing opinions on who that flag really represents, while also bringing into clear focus the current needs within our community,’ Quasar has said.
There are still debates about which flags should be used, and there will probably be many more variations to come. But the newer designs will hopefully make all members of the Queer community feel included and considered.
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