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The six-stripe rainbow flag and the Progress Pride flag share Gilbert Baker’s color field, but they communicate different things. The rainbow uses six horizontal stripes to express shared values—life, healing, sunlight, nature, serenity or harmony, and spirit. Daniel Quasar’s 2018 Progress design keeps those stripes and adds a left-side, right-pointing chevron: black and brown for LGBTQ people of color (with black also memorializing people affected by HIV/AIDS), plus light blue, pink, and white from the transgender flag. A 2021 intersex-inclusive version adds a yellow triangle and purple circle. None is the single “correct” flag; they are related symbols used for different emphases.
At a glance
| Name | Best for | Key spec | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Six-stripe rainbow Pride flag | Historic, broadly recognized symbol of LGBTQ unity | Six equal horizontal stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet | Oct 2026 |
| Progress Pride flag (2018) | Showing trans inclusion, racial inclusion, and HIV/AIDS remembrance alongside the rainbow | Rainbow field plus five-band chevron at the hoist; tip points right | Oct 2026 |
| Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag (2021) | Making intersex inclusion explicit in the Progress design | 2018 chevron plus yellow triangle and purple circle | Oct 2026 |
What is the difference between the Progress Pride flag and the rainbow flag?
The rainbow flag is Baker’s six-color design. The Progress Pride flag preserves that field but adds identity-specific colors in a chevron at the hoist (the side attached to a pole), making trans people, LGBTQ people of color, and people affected by HIV/AIDS visually prominent.
Rainbow Pride flag: one field of shared values
Gilbert Baker created the first rainbow flag for San Francisco Pride in 1978. The original had eight stripes. The six-stripe version that became standard removed hot pink and turquoise, leaving red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Baker’s colors describe ideals rather than separate demographic groups.
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Non-binary artist and graphic designer Daniel Quasar designed the Progress Pride flag in June 2018. Xe kept Baker’s six stripes “to honor the legacy of the meaning of the stripes,” then moved five newer colors to the hoist in a chevron so their message would be distinct and visually emphasized. Quasar’s explanation and current reuse information are on progress.gay.
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The chevron does not replace the rainbow field. It adds a statement about who still needs attention within the broader LGBTQ community and about the work of moving toward greater inclusion.
Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag: an explicit intersex emblem
Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK released the intersex-inclusive version in late May 2021. It adds a golden-yellow triangle and a purple circle to the left of the existing chevron. The emblem draws on Morgan Carpenter’s 2013 intersex flag and makes intersex inclusion visible rather than leaving it implied by the 2018 design.
What do the colors on the six-stripe rainbow flag mean?
The six stripes retain Baker’s value-based meanings. Blue is variously described as serenity, harmony, or peace; these labels refer to the same stripe, not separate colors.
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| Stripe (top to bottom) | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Life |
| Orange | Healing |
| Yellow | Sunlight |
| Green | Nature |
| Blue | Serenity, harmony, or peace |
| Violet | Spirit |
The yellow stripe in this rainbow field means sunlight. It is not an HIV/AIDS symbol. Primary accounts from Quasar’s site, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Government of Canada assign HIV/AIDS remembrance to the black chevron stripe instead.
Why did the original eight-color flag become six colors?
Baker’s 1978 flag included hot pink for sex or sexuality and turquoise for magic or art. Pink fabric was difficult to obtain when the flag was first produced. Turquoise was later removed both to improve visual legibility and to keep the remaining colors in an even count that could be folded into two equal halves. The six-color flag became the familiar version used for the following decades.
What do the chevrons on the Progress flag mean?
Read the 2018 chevron from the outer hoist edge toward its inner tip: black, brown, light blue, pink, and white. The colors come from earlier community flags, but their placement together changes the visual emphasis of the rainbow.
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| Chevron position | Color | Meaning and lineage |
|---|---|---|
| Outer band at the hoist | Black | LGBTQ people of color; also people living with HIV, people lost to AIDS, and the stigma and prejudice associated with the epidemic. The HIV/AIDS meaning follows the Victory Over AIDS lineage. |
| Next band | Brown | Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, following Philadelphia’s More Color, More Pride campaign introduced in 2017. |
| Next band | Light blue | Transgender people; the traditional baby-boy color in Monica Helms’s 1999 transgender Pride flag. |
| Next band | Pink | Transgender people; the traditional baby-girl color in Helms’s flag. |
| Inner tip | White | People who are transitioning, intersex people, and people with a neutral or undefined gender in Helms’s original symbolism. |
The 2018 flag does not contain a separate intersex emblem. Its white band carries the meaning assigned to it in the transgender flag, while the dedicated yellow-and-purple intersex symbol arrived in 2021.
Why are there black and brown stripes on the Pride flag?
Philadelphia’s 2017 More Color, More Pride flag added black and brown to call attention to Black, Indigenous, and other people of color within LGBTQ communities. Quasar placed those colors in the chevron rather than stacking them above the rainbow, separating their identity-specific meaning from Baker’s value stripes.
Black has an additional memorial meaning. The Victory Over AIDS tradition used a black stripe to remember people who died of AIDS; Quasar also uses it to represent people living with HIV and the stigma surrounding them. The black stripe is therefore not simply another racial-identity color.
What does the arrow on the Progress flag mean?
The chevron is an arrow pointing from the hoist toward the fly (the free edge). Quasar says it shows forward movement while reminding viewers that progress still needs to be made. Its position at the hoist keeps the added colors at the leading edge of the design, rather than treating inclusion as a distant add-on.
Quasar also described the design as a prompt for viewers to consider who they believe the original flag represents and what the community needs now. The arrow is therefore both directional and unfinished: it points ahead without claiming that equality has been completed.
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On the 2021 intersex-inclusive version, the golden-yellow triangle and purple circle identify intersex inclusion. The colors deliberately avoid the pink-and-blue gender coding associated with binary stereotypes.
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The yellow triangle
Yellow and purple come from Morgan Carpenter’s 2013 intersex flag. Their contrast with pink and blue signals that intersex bodies and identities should not be forced into a male/female binary.
The purple circle
Carpenter has explained that the circle represents being whole and unbroken, and the right to make decisions about one’s own body. It also expresses the intersex movement’s demand for bodily autonomy and genital integrity. The circle is not a gender symbol and does not indicate a particular gender identity.
Where the intersex emblem sits
Vecchietti nested the yellow triangle at the left of the existing chevron, so the emblem shares the Progress flag’s “movement toward inclusion” grammar. Canada currently uses this intersex-inclusive design as its federal Pride flag; it was raised on Parliament Hill for the first time at the 2024 Pride Flag Raising, according to Women and Gender Equality Canada.
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Who designed each flag, and when?
| Date | Design milestone |
|---|---|
| 1978 | Gilbert Baker creates an eight-stripe rainbow for San Francisco Pride, with assistance from Lynn Segerblom and James McNamara. |
| Late 1978–1979 | Hot pink and turquoise are removed; the six-stripe rainbow becomes the practical standard. |
| 1980s | The Victory Over AIDS tradition associates a black stripe with remembrance of people lost to AIDS. |
| 1999 | Monica Helms creates the transgender Pride flag: light blue, pink, white, pink, light blue. |
| 2013 | Morgan Carpenter creates the yellow-and-purple intersex flag. |
| 2017 | Philadelphia’s More Color, More Pride campaign introduces black and brown stripes. |
| 6 June 2018 | Quasar publishes “Progress: a PRIDE flag reboot,” introducing the chevron concept. |
| 2020 | The Victoria and Albert Museum acquires a Quasar Progress flag manufactured by Art Schaller for Custom Flag Company in Westminster, Colorado. |
| January 2021 | The Progress design appears on RuPaul’s Drag Race, helping broaden public exposure. |
| Late May 2021 | Vecchietti and Intersex Equality Rights UK release the intersex-inclusive Progress version. |
| 2024 | Canada raises the intersex-inclusive flag on Parliament Hill; Sydney’s Taylor Square crossing is updated to a Progress design. |
Is the Progress Pride flag replacing the rainbow flag?
No. Quasar has explicitly said the design was not intended as a replacement. The designer’s current statement is that community flags are valid forms of expression and that people should use the flag that best speaks to them.
The six-stripe rainbow remains the most widely recognized historic LGBTQ symbol. The Progress design is useful when a group wants to make racial inclusion, trans inclusion, and HIV/AIDS remembrance visible on the cloth itself. The intersex-inclusive version adds a further explicit emphasis for events, institutions, or communities that want intersex visibility named directly.
Why do some people criticize the Progress design?
Supporters say the chevron confronts racism and transphobia within LGBTQ communities and places marginalized people at the forefront. Critics have argued that a highly itemized flag can become branding without material equality, that the original rainbow was already universal, or that adding identities can create an endless queue of new additions. Some LGBTQ people of color have also criticized the design as having been created without sufficient community consultation.
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These are debates about representation and strategy, not evidence that one flag invalidates another. Many Pride events fly multiple versions at once.
What is the difference between the 2018 and 2021 Progress versions?
| Feature | 2018 Progress Pride flag | 2021 Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag |
|---|---|---|
| Rainbow field | Six Baker stripes | Six Baker stripes |
| Chevron | Black, brown, light blue, pink, white | Same five-band chevron |
| Intersex symbol | No dedicated emblem | Yellow triangle with purple circle |
| Designer and date | Daniel Quasar, 2018 | Valentino Vecchietti, 2021; intersex emblem based on Morgan Carpenter’s 2013 flag |
| Institutional example | Flown at Pride events and represented in the V&A collection | Canada’s current federal Pride flag; first raised on Parliament Hill in 2024 |
Both versions remain in active use. The 2021 design is an evolution of the 2018 composition, not a separate replacement for every other Pride flag.
Which rainbow flag is correct for an event, organization, or home?
Choose according to the message you want the display to carry, not according to a rule that one design has universal authority.
- Choose the six-stripe rainbow when you want the historic, immediately recognizable symbol of LGBTQ unity and Baker’s shared values.
- Choose the 2018 Progress flag when you want the rainbow accompanied by explicit visibility for LGBTQ people of color, transgender people, and people affected by HIV/AIDS.
- Choose the intersex-inclusive Progress flag when you want that same message plus a dedicated intersex emblem.
- Fly more than one version when an event serves a broad audience and has room to show both the historic symbol and newer inclusive designs.
When ordering, name the design precisely. “Rainbow Pride flag” normally means the six-stripe version; “Progress Pride flag” means the 2018 chevron design; “intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag” means the 2021 version with the yellow triangle and purple circle.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can the Progress Pride design be reused?
Quasar’s current statement on progress.gay says the Progress design is released under CC0, effectively placing it in the public domain for commercial and non-commercial use. Earlier versions of the licensing arrangement were more restrictive because Quasar objected to unattributed corporate merchandise and rainbow-capitalist marketing. For a current project, follow the designer’s present CC0 statement rather than older summaries of the former license.
Gilbert Baker did not trademark the original rainbow flag. That does not eliminate other practical issues: a manufacturer may still have its own artwork, fabric, or logo rights, and an organization should avoid implying endorsement by a designer or community group.
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How did the Progress flag become widely visible?
Quasar’s 2018 Kickstarter had a stated goal of $14,000 and closed on 23 June 2018 with about $25,802 from 508 backers, according to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s account. The campaign supported flags, stickers, and enamel pins. The design spread quickly through Pride events and public displays, including the Seattle Space Needle in 2020, the V&A collection, and television exposure in 2021.
Those figures describe the launch campaign, not worldwide adoption. No authoritative source establishes a global percentage of Pride events or households using one version, and local practice varies considerably.
How can you identify each flag at a glance?
- Look for the number of horizontal stripes. Six equal stripes with no added shape indicate the historic rainbow.
- Check the hoist. A five-band arrow-shaped chevron means the 2018 Progress design is present.
- Look for yellow and purple inside a triangle. A yellow triangle containing a purple circle identifies the 2021 intersex-inclusive version.
- Read the arrow direction. The chevron’s tip points right, from the hoist toward the fly, expressing forward movement.
On a pole, the chevron belongs at the pole side. If the flag is shown horizontally in artwork, keep the chevron on the viewer’s left and its tip aimed into the rainbow field.
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- The rainbow’s yellow stripe means sunlight; it is not the HIV/AIDS stripe.
- Black and brown in the chevron foreground racial inclusion; black also remembers people living with or lost to AIDS and the stigma around HIV.
- Light blue, pink, and white come from Monica Helms’s transgender flag; the 2018 design has no separate intersex emblem.
- The yellow triangle and purple circle were added in 2021 to make intersex inclusion explicit.
- The right-pointing chevron means movement toward inclusion while acknowledging that progress remains unfinished.
- The three designs are related choices, not a hierarchy in which one makes the others obsolete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a school or business use the Progress Pride flag in a logo or advertisement?
Quasar’s current progress.gay statement places the design under CC0, allowing commercial and non-commercial reuse without a permission request. Attribution is not required by CC0, but giving credit and avoiding claims that the designer or a community organization endorses a campaign are responsible practices.
Why do some flags have an extra black stripe that seems separate from the chevron?
Some designs reference the older Victory Over AIDS flag, which used a black stripe to remember people lost to AIDS. The Progress design incorporates that remembrance into its black chevron rather than adding another horizontal stripe to Baker’s field.
Does the white band mean the same thing on every Pride flag?
No. In Monica Helms’s transgender flag, white represents people transitioning, intersex people, and people with a neutral or undefined gender. The Progress flag carries that meaning into its chevron; it should not be read as a universal white-stripe definition for every Pride design.
Why might an institution display both a rainbow and a Progress flag?
Displaying both can acknowledge the historic symbol while making newer inclusion priorities visible. Quasar’s own position is that multiple community flags are valid, so simultaneous display communicates continuity rather than choosing a winner.
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