The rainbow flag is the symbol of LGBTQ + pride which represents diversity. The flag was born in San Francisco in 1978 and owes its origin to artist Gilbert Baker at the request of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay American politician. Originally, the flag featured eight stripes of different colors: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo and purple. This flag was first used in 1978, during the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. The following year, for the 1979 parade, Baker commissioned a San Francisco company (Paramount Flag Company) to mass-produce rainbow flags. As some colors were not available, hot pink and turquoise were phased out, and royal blue replaced indigo. Since then, the rainbow flag has six colors representing different aspects of these communities: red for life, orange for comfort, yellow for the sun, green for nature, blue for art. and purple for spirituality.

In 2017, a new proposal included brown and black as part of the “More Color, More Pride” campaign, in order to recognize the point of view of racialized LGBT people and to initiate a conversation around racist discrimination within the community. Then, in 2019, another design is created by Daniel Quasar as part of Europride, which includes the three colors of the trans flag: white, light blue and light pink in the 8-color design offered 2 years earlier.

Today there are almost as many flags as there are identities!