Heading to Pride this weekend? It’s common knowledge that the signature flag for pride is traditionally rainbow coloured, but there’s actually a big bunch of different flags you may spot floating around this weekend. Each individual flag celebrates different sexualities and communities, and we’re here to educate you on what they all mean!

 

The flag you’ll see flying the streets of London the most this weekend is none other than the rainbow flag, which symbolises pride, hope and diversity within the LGBT community. Each individual colour symbolises a different meaning. Red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity and purple for spirit. A second variation on the rainbow flag you may see roaming the streets is a new addition where two extra stripes of black and brown have been added to include people of colour into the mix.

Designed in 1998 by Michael Page, this flag symbolises the blend of bisexual individuals liking both men and women sexually, the purple is a close blend with the pink and blue hues.

Created by Monica Helms in 1999 she decided that trans people also needed their own flag to symbolise their own sense of community. The blue stands for trans men, the pink for trans women and the white in-between represents people who do not define themselves as male or female.

An update on the tradition Pride flag, this new 2018 version of the pride flag includes the trans flag and also the brown and black that was incorporated into the generic pride flag for the ‘More Colour More Pride’ campaign. This flag is set to give a much wider meaning and being inclusive of everyone.

Celebrating all things female, the Lesbian Pride flag is all about giving women their own individuality when it comes to symbolising their sexuality.

The pansexual flag is all about having an attraction to all genders, the pink symbolising women, the blue symbolising men and the yellow symbolising people of other less specific genders.

Using yellow and purple as ‘hermaphrodite’ specific colours and avoiding the traditional pink and blue – the Intersex Pride flag is for individuals who don’t necessarily fit the typical characterisations of a male or a female.

Used as a word to describe people who have either minimal or no sexual feelings and desires towards others. The asexual flag has four different colours that all have their own individual meanings, black for asexuality, grey for the ‘grey-area’ between sexual and asexual, white for sexuality and purple for a sense of community.