Pride: What is the Progress Pride flag?

June is Pride month, and many people around the world will be waving a Pride flag to celebrate and show their support.

The Pride flag is a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community and its colours represent the different communities within it.

Over the last few years the Pride flag has been updated and changed to better include and represent more communities.

One of these updated versions is the Progress Pride flag.

Find out more about the Progress Pride flag and its origins below.

What is the history of the Pride flag?

The Pride flag was created by American artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker, and first displayed in 1978 to be a symbol for the LGBT community.

The original design had eight stripes instead of the six normally seen now, and each of its colourful stripes had a meaning.

Speaking about his design, Gilbert said: "We needed something beautiful... something from us."

Although it would have made him a lot of money, Gilbert refused to trademark his flag design, saying it was a symbol for everyone.

The flag design spread around the world and in the 1990s it became a symbol for those fighting for equal rights for the LGBT community.

Forty-three years later the Pride flag is still a widely used and recognised symbol of the LGBT community.

What changes have been made to the Pride flag?

The most recent update to the Progress Pride flag includes the Intersex community

Over the years the original rainbow flag has been redesigned, with some within LGBTQ+ movements arguing it needed to better represent and reflect more communities.

In 2017, Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs added black and brown stripes to the Pride flag to recognise people of colour.

One year later, an artist called Daniel Quasar released a redesign of the Pride flag, called the Progress Pride flag, which was widely shared on social media.

It included black, brown, pink, pale blue and white stripes, to represent marginalised people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the trans community, and those living with HIV/AIDS.

"The arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made." explained Daniel Quasar.

Some people within LGBTQ+ communities said that Gilbert Baker's Pride flag didn't need to be changed, arguing that it was originally designed to be representative of everyone. But others, including Daniel Quasar, said that the Progress Pride flag wasn't intended to replace the original, and argued that it was important to represent marginalised communities.

In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK, shared an updated version to the Progress Pride flag, which included a yellow triangle and purple circle to represent the intersex community.

Intersex people are born with a combination of male and female traits, including hormones, chromosomes and genitals.