6-Color Pride Flag

The six-color pride flag is the rainbow flag most people picture today. Artist and activist Gilbert Baker designed the original rainbow flag in 1978 with eight stripes. Within a year the design settled into six stripes, partly because hot pink and turquoise fabric were hard to source in quantity. The six colors carry symbolic meaning: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony or serenity, and violet for spirit. It has since inspired many identity-specific pride flags, but the six-stripe version remains the shared banner of the whole LGBTQ+ community, seen at Pride marches, storefronts, and demonstrations around the world.