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LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Rainbow strips with text "LGBTW+ Pride"

Boston Pride Events 2023

Celebrate Pride Month in Boston with city-wide this June:

Rainbow strips with text "LGBTW+ Pride"

Presidential Proclamation

History

On June 11, 1999, President William (Bill) J. Clinton was the first U.S. President to declare June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. During his eight years in office, Clinton's successor, President George W. Bush, did not observe Pride Month. President Barack Obama, on the other hand, followed Clinton's lead by observing Pride Month every year he was in office (and expanding it to include bisexual and transgender Americans). Though President Donald Trump tweeted about Pride Month in 2019, he never officially recognized it. On June 1, 2021, President Joe Biden’s White House issued a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month and has continued to observe Pride Month every year.

Below is a link to the 2023 Proclamation by President Joe Biden, and a link to the first Gay and Lesbian's Month proclamation given by President Bill Clinton in 1999. 

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LGBTQ+ Flags

Rainbow Pride Flags

THE RAINBOW FLAG

The original Rainbow Flag (top image) was designed by Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man, and a drag queen. He was urged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the US, to create a symbol of pride for the gay community. The flag debuted at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.

Originally eight stripes, the current version of the flag (bottom image) is six stripes.

  • Pink: Sex
  • Red: Life
  • Orange: Healing
  • Yellow: Sunlight
  • Green: Nature
  • Turquoise: Art
  • Indigo: Harmony
  • Violet: Spirit

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Agender Pride Flag

AGENDER

Agender is defined as not having a gender, or "lack of gender."

The flag was designed by Salem X in 2014. There are seven horizontal stripes in the flag:

  • Black and white: an absence of gender.
  • Gray: semi-genderlessness.
  • Green: non-binary gender.

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Aromantic Pride Flag

AROMANTIC

An aromantic person is someone who does not experience romantic attraction or does so in a significantly different way than is traditionally thought of.

The flag was designed by Tumblr user Cameron (@cameronwhimsy) from Australia on February 7, 2014.

There are five horizontal stripes:

  • Green: aromanticism 
  • Light green: the aromantic spectrum
  • White: aesthetic attraction
  • Gray: gray-aromantic and demiromantic people
  • Black: sexuality spectrum

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Asexuality Pride Flag

ASEXUALITY

An asexual person is someone who does not experience sexual attraction or an intrinsic desire to have sexual relationships.

The flag was designed by a member of the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) as part of a contest in 2010.

There are 4 horizontal stripes:

  • Black: asexuality
  • Grey: asexuality and demisexuality
  • White: non-asexual partners and allies
  • Purple: community

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Bisexuality Pride Flag

BISEXUALITY

The flag was designed by Michael Page, and it was introduced on December 5, 1998.

There are three horizontal stripes: magenta (pink) 40%, lavender (purple) 20%, and royal (blue) 40%

  • Pink: sexual attraction to same-sex only (gay and lesbian)
  • Blue: sexual attraction to the opposite sex (straight)
  • Purple: sexual attraction to both sexes (bi)

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Image: web.archive.org/web/20010801185547/http:/www.biflag.com/Activism.asp

Genderfluid Pride Flag

GENDERFLUID

Genderfluid people are people whose gender changes over time. 

There are five horizontal stripes in the flag, which represent the fluctuations and flexibility of gender in gender-fluid people. 

  • Pink: Feminnity.
  • White: a lack of gender.
  • Purple: the combination of masculinity and femininity including carious degrees of androgyny.
  • Black: represents all other genders, third genders, and pangender.
  • Blue: masculinity.

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GenderQueer Pride Flag

GENDERQUEER

Genderqueer is gender identity that is built around the term "queer." 

To be queer is to exist in a way that may not align with heterosexual or homosexual norms. Although it’s typically used to describe a person’s sexual orientation, it can also be used to express nonbinary gender identity. 

The flag has three horizontal stripes:

  • Lavender: mix of blue and pink, colors associated with men and women, and represent androgyny as well as queer identities.
  • White:  agender or gender-neutral identities.
  • Chartreuse: inverse of lavender and represents third gender identities and identities outside the gender binary.

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Intersex Pride Flag

INTERSEX

Intersex people are those who do not exhibit all the biological characteristics of male or female, or exhibit a combination of characteristics, at birth.

The flag was created by Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia in 2013.

It is a yellow flag with a purple open circle  - “The circle is unbroken and un-ornamented, symbolizing wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities,” the group states of the flag design.

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Lesbian Pride Flags

LESBIAN

There have been several designs of the lesbian pride flag over the years.

  • Top left: Labrys version
    • Designed by Sean Campbell in 1999, this design draws on Greek mythology. In ancient Greece, the Amazons were a tribe of warrior women who wielded the double-headed labrys axe. The black triangle refers to the symbol used to identify lesbians to in Nazi concentration camps.
    • The color violet became associated with lesbians via the poetry of Sappho
  • Top right: Lipstick lesbian pride flag
    • Created in 2010, this design has 6 stripes in shades of pink and red, a white bar in the center, and a lipstick kiss symbol in the top left corner. It's said to represent femmes, or lesbians with a more feminine expression of their gender. It has been criticized for excluding butch women.
  • Bottom left: 2018 version
    • Designed by tumblr user sadlesbeandisaster, this version has seven stripes.
      • Dark orange representing 'gender non-conformity',
      • Orange for 'independence',
      • Light orange for 'community',
      • White for 'unique relationships to womanhood',
      • Pink for 'serenity and peace',
      • Dusty pink for 'love and sex',
      • Dark rose for 'femininity'.
  • Bottom right: current version
    • A 5-stripe version was created for easier replication.

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Nonbinary Pride Flag

NONBINARY

Nonbinary means any gender identity that is not strictly male or female all the time. There are many different identities within this category including androgyny, genderqueerness, third gender, and transgender. 

The flag was created by Kye Rowan in 2014. The design includes four horizontal stripes:

  • Yellow: people who identify outside of the gender binary.
  • White: nonbinary people with multiple genders.
  • Purple: those with a mixture of both male and female genders.
  • Black: genderless identities.

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Pansexual Pride Flag

PANSEXUAL

Pansexuality is the attraction to people regardless of gender identity. 

The flag was introduced in 2010, which has 3 horizontal stripes.

  • Pink: attraction to women
  • Yellow: attraction to men
  • Blue: attraction to everyone else (nonbinary gender, agender, bigender, genderfluid)

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Philadelphia Pride Flag

PHILADELPHIA PRIDE FLAG

The flag was designed by marketing firm Tierney and was revealed in June 2017.

The black and brown stripes were added to the top of the original pride flag created by Gilbert Baker. "The black and brown stripes are an inclusionary way to highlight black and brown LGBTQIA members within our community."

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Transgender Pride Flag

TRANSGENDER

The flag was designed by Monica Helms in 1999 and was first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, AZ in 2000.

  • The top and bottom stripes are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys.
  • The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls.
  • The center strip is white for people that are nonbinary or feel that they do not have a gender.
     

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