This text is a part of In Session: The Teen Vogue Lesson Plan. Discover the total lesson plan right here.
Ever for the reason that first rainbow-hued LGBTQ flag was created in 1978, pleasure flags have been a colourful image of queer id. Very like the communities they symbolize, these flags are in a relentless state of evolution, increasing to higher and extra inclusively embody each queer id beneath the rainbow. And what a rainbow it’s!
Immediately, there are dozens of LGBTQ+ flags representing simply as many gender identities, sexualities and intersections of communities. Though the symbolic use of shiny colours has lengthy been linked to queer tradition, these flags, fittingly, are a extremely seen, widerspread sign of queer id in comparison with a few of the barely extra covert LGBTQ+ symbols that preceded them. Flags are, in any case, meant to be flown — loudly and proudly! Under, we’ll stroll you thru the origin, which means and colours of 21 LGBTQ flags, from the unique pleasure flag to new pleasure flags flown right now, to be able to perceive which id every flag celebrates.
1. Gilbert Baker Satisfaction Flag
That is the mom — or, in much less gendered phrases, the dad or mum — of all LGBTQ flags. The unique pleasure flag got here to be in 1978 after Gilbert Baker, an activist, homosexual army veteran and drag queen, was tasked by fellow activist and politician Harvey Milk with making a celebratory image for the homosexual group. An eight-striped rainbow was what Baker and a group of collaborating artists and volunteers in the end crafted, unfurling the primary flag at June’s San Francisco Homosexual Freedom Day Parade — just some months earlier than Milk was assassinated in November 1978. Every of the colours had a definite which means: