_PNG.png){kind=small}
The Evolution of Pride Flags Through Art: From Gilbert Baker to Contemporary Artists
- Avani
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Flags are often the symbol of a territory, a mark that the land belongs to particular people. We can say that flags inherently divide and create borders between people. Although LGBTQ+ flags are the opposite of that, they are the symbol of unity, bringing together people who believe in one true love. This flag has represented the lives of people, a group that believes in each other, without borders.
Pride flag art started as a radical, hand-dyed art installation in a plaza in San Francisco in 1978 and has developed into a global, vibrant visual language. The Pride Flag is not only a history of colors but an art history project of its own. It represents a multi-generational legacy of queer artists and designers who have always been endeavoring to re-imagine a canvas so that no one is left in the shadows.In this blog, we will jump a little into the Pride Month art history and discuss the evolution of the Pride flag art and LGBTQ+ symbolism in art.
Gilbert Baker and the 1978 Radical Genesis
Why was the first flag of rainbow colors designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker?
OR
Who designed the first rainbow-colored flag in 1978, and why?
Revisiting the history of the Pride flag requires a trip to 1978 San Francisco, a time when politics and social issues were omnipresent. The young, self-taught sewist and drag queen Gilbert Baker was given a clear directive from activist and city supervisor Harvey Milk: the movement needed a new symbol.
The pink triangle was the most prominent symbol of gay liberation until then. The triangle had a bitter and painful history, though; it was a symbol of forced reclamation and was first adopted in Nazi concentration camps to mark and target gay men. Baker wanted to break the cycle of oppression. He envisioned something that would be a symbol of joy, liberation, and cosmic hope. He selected the rainbow. Gilbert Baker rainbow flag is known ever since for the revolution it began.
During June 1978, Baker recruited 30 volunteers at the Gay Community Center along with artists Lynn Segerblom (the "Queen of Tie-Dye") and James McNamara. They prepared the dyes themselves and together packed the home-made dyes into waste bins, soaking strips of cotton muslin, and ironed the wet muslin to create two large flags, 30 x 60 feet each.
Each of these 8-striped banners symbolized one of the most important aspects of human life when used at the Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978, in the Plaza of Nations in New York City.
Gilbert Baker rainbow flag meaning - the original 1978 Eight-Stripe Pride Flag symbolizes:
Hot Pink: Sex
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Turquoise: Magic / Art
Indigo: Serenity
Violet: Spirit
The Great Simplification: Losing Sex and Magic
When Harvey Milk was murdered in November 1978, Baker's rainbow flag was in high demand. Baker teamed up with San Francisco's Paramount Flag Company to mass-produce the symbol, but ran into logistical problems.
The Loss of Hot Pink (1978): Hot pink cloth was not available for commercial flag production, and was even hard to get in large quantities. The stripe was removed.
In 1979, organizers of the Gay Freedom Day Parade wanted to divide the flag to decorate the lampposts along Market Street. An odd number of stripes was not good for a symmetrical split. Baker decided to remove the turquoise stripe, and the indigo was changed to a standard royal blue.
This mechanical adjustment stripped down the banner to the all-familiar 6-striped banner (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet) that for 40 years would hold the banner as the sign of queer visual culture, the visibility worldwide. Baker intentionally decided not to trademark or copyright the design. He saw it as a gift to humanity and a work of public art that was 100% theirs.
Explore more: Gender Identity and Queer Art: Charting the Trajectories of Contemporary Artistic Expression
Breaking the Horizon: Monica Helms and the Transgender Canvas
More and more, people living in the city began to discuss the details of the six-stripe flag, as it consolidated its place as a global design classic and was later added to the permanent architectural collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
In 1999, openly trans naval veteran and activist, Monica Helms, noticed that the horizontal rainbow of the traditional rainbow was not an accurate representation of the unique and pressing issues of the trans community. She sat down and created a flag with stripes going across her flag: two stripes of baby blue, two stripes of baby pink, and a single strip of white in the center.
"The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are transitioning or consider themselves to have a neutral or undefined gender."
— Monica Helms
Helms' design was both conceptually poignant and mathematically elegant. The flag can be flown either way up. This symmetry embodies an unflaggable belief that there is something correct and right in the world, and is a strong visual metaphor for transgender persons discovering correctness and wholeness in their own lives.
The Geometry of Inclusion: Amber Hikes and Daniel Quasar
A key conversation arose in the LGBTQ+ movement by the late 2010s that focused on intersectionality. Despite the concept of the rainbow being inclusive, many queer people of color and trans people remained marginalized, subjected to disproportionate levels of discrimination, violence, and erasure, including from the queer community.
Art reacted by altering the geometry of the flag.
The Philadelphia "More Color More Pride" Flag (2017)
The city of Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs, which is headed by activist Amber Hikes, came up with a new version in June 2017, which included a black stripe and a brown stripe placed over the original six-striped rainbow. This disruption of the visual landscape was an explicit response to systemic racism in the city's gay bar landscape, making it very clear that queer people have always been integral to the history of the movement.
Daniel Quasar's Progress Pride Flag (2018)
The Philadelphia flag began an important discussion, and the stacked horizontal stripes changed the ratio of the flag. Then in 2018, non-binary digital designer and artist Daniel Quasar (pronouns xe/them) used a brilliant graphic re-imagining to solve this structural design challenge: The Progress Pride Flag.
Quasar maintained the core six-stripe rainbow, but added the black and brown stripes as well as the pink, white, and baby blue stripes from Helms' Trans Flag in a separate chevron along the left edge of the hoist.
This change in the format changed the visual function of the pride flag. Here is the Progress Pride flag meaning:
The chevron is an arrow pointing to the right; the Arrow of Movement. This is progress forward and a reminder that there must be forward work in order to make progress.
Prioritization: These special colors were put on the left edge, making them stand out. The design asserts that safety and visibility for trans and queer people of color are at the heart of contemporary liberation.
Memorializing History: Quasar gave another implication to the black stripe. It symbolizes black queer people as well as a respectful tribute to HIV/AIDS sufferers, those who have succumbed to the virus, and the stigma that still surrounds it.
Quasar's design was an instant viral hit, showing how a graphic design can make something historic an intersectional rallying call.
Wholeness and Autonomy: Valentino Vecchietti’s Intersex-Inclusive Evolution
It wasn't just the chevron that went through these changes. British intersex equality campaigner, writer, and artist Valentino Vecchietti (she/they) knew in 2021 that there was a missing piece in this evolving picture: intersex people who are born with natural variations in their sex characteristics, who were not specifically represented in the picture.
The design Vecchietti used was a brilliant piece by Morgan Carpenter from 2013 that incorporated the original intersex pride flag—purple with a solid, golden-yellow background and an unbroken purple circle in the centre.
The yellow triangle with a purple circle is located in the leftmost part of the Vecchietti Intersex Inclusive Progress Pride Flag. In the realm of colour theory, the colours yellow and purple are completely without gendered connotations, unlike pink or blue.
Additionally, the circle is free from decoration and is a whole unit. It is a symbol of bodily autonomy and structural integrity for intersex people, who have often been subjected to medically imposed changes in their bodies. As Vecchietti evolved, he merged all kinds of sexual orientations, gender expressions, and natural sex characteristics into one visual space effortlessly.
Chronology of Queer Vexillology
Year | Artist / Designer | Major Flag Innovation | Core Conceptual Focus |
1978 | Gilbert Baker, Lynn Segerblom, James McNamara | Original 8-Stripe Rainbow | Joy, celebration, and a clean break from the traumatic pink triangle. |
1979 | Gilbert Baker / Commercial Adaptation | Standard 6-Stripe Rainbow | Mass production, symmetry for street lamps, global visibility. |
1999 | Monica Helms | Transgender Pride Flag | Symmetrical design focused on trans, transitioning, and non-binary individuals. |
2017 | Amber Hikes (Philly LGBT Affairs) | 8-Stripe Intersectional Flag | First inclusion of black and brown stripes to combat racism inside the community. |
2018 | Daniel Quasar | Progress Pride Flag | Introduction of the left-hoist chevron indicating forward progress, trans visibility, and AIDS remembrance. |
2021 | Valentino Vecchietti | Intersex-Inclusive Progress Flag | Integration of the yellow field and purple circle to honor intersex bodily integrity and wholeness. |
The Pride Flag as Living Art
Whether it's hand-dyed trash cans in San Francisco or clean graphic vectors in digital design studios, the Pride flag has evolved and is not a monument. They are window screens constructed from community folk art.
Each stripe, each chevron, and each circle is a community that is saying no more to those who are most invisible. These artists did not wreck Gilbert Baker's original intent – they carried it out. This was pure self-expression through art. They made a symbol of hope bigger to make it bigger as the community grows, and they fly it as an open invitation to the world.
