The Abrosexual Pride Flag has existed since 2015. Those two stripes also represent those living with HIV/AIDS, people who have passed from the virus and the overall stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS that remains today. The modern pride flag now includes stripes to represent the experiences of people of color, as well as stripes to represent people who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC) and/or undefined.ĭaniel Quasar’s flag includes the colors of the trans flag, as well as black and brown stripes harkening back to 2017 Philadelphia Pride Flag, which sought to further represent the queer and trans identities of black and brown people. Thankfully, it has been redesigned to place a greater emphasis on “inclusion and progression.” Our community is such a huge umbrella of different kind of people and that is what makes us so special, that is what makes us so unique and that is what makes us so powerful. What happens if you're at a Pride event or parade, spot a flag and don't know what it stands for? Well, I'd politely ask the people around you wherever you are and see if they have an answer.Given the evolving nature of the LGBTQ+ community and society at large, the Progress Pride Flag integrates many of these flags into one. (For more flags, check out, which bills itself as "a home for the voices and the stories of the queer community, as well as providing information on queer topics and culture." Here's a visual lexicon of some of the flags you might see along the parade route this month. A Google search showed a number of these flags have been further customized by different subgroups within each community, so variety abounds.Ĭhicago's 48th annual Pride Parade kicks off at noon June 25. It has become, in the words of an April 2017 story by my Tribune colleague Rex Huppke, the "international symbol of gay pride."īut just as the communities under the LGBTQ banner are more numerous than the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer identities used in the LGBTQ abbreviation (check out my story on how the number of letters may be growing), so, too, are the flags proudly waved to represent the pride of various constituent groups, from the leather community to those who identify as intersex.
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This flag, instantly recognizable for its distinctive rows of brightly colored stripes, was created in 1978 by the late Gilbert Baker. And I'm not just talking the star-spangledbanner - the rainbowflag will surely be everywhere. June is Pride Month, a time when the LGBTQ community across the United States celebrates with rallies, artistic performances, street fairs and, especially in cities like Chicago, gigantic, lengthy parades complete with floats, waving politicos and lots of flags flying. I was astounded nobody had thought of making a rainbow flag before because it seemed like such an obvious symbol for us." (Wikimedia Commons)
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To me, it was the only thing that could really express our diversity, beauty and our joy. I almost instantly thought of using the rainbow. Even though the pink triangle was and still is a powerful symbol, it was very much forced upon us. Why a rainbow? Baker explained in a 2008 interview with the Independent, a British newspaper: "In 1978, when I thought of creating a flag for the gay movement there was no other international symbol for us than the pink triangle, which the Nazis used to identify homosexuals in concentration camps. As The New York Times reported in its obituary for Baker, who died March 31, each stripe had meaning: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for peace and purple for spirit. Gilbert Baker's original flag had eight stripes.