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The rainbow flag has become the most popular and most easily-recognizable symbol of the LGBTQ community. The six consecutive colors of the rainbow are the colors of pride for the LGBTQ community and can be seen emblazoned on flags, signs, buttons, banners, and a range of objects. Use of the rainbow flag by the LGBTQ community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade.

Gilbert Baker (1951-2017) was an American artist, gay rights activist, and designer of the rainbow flag (1978). Baker's flag became widely associated with LGBTQ rights causes, a symbol of gay pride that has become ubiquitous in the decades since its debut. In 2015, the Museum of Modern Art ranked the rainbow flag as an internationally recognized symbol as important as the recycling symbol.

The colors on the Rainbow Flag reflect the diversity of the LGBTQ community. When Baker raised the first rainbow flags at San Francisco Pride on June 25, 1978, it was originally comprised of eight symbolic colors: Hot Pink (Sex), Red (Life ), Orange (Healing), Yellow (Sunlight), Green (Nature), Turquoise (Magic/Art), Indigo (Serenity), Violet (Spirit).

The use of the rainbow flag as a visible symbol of LGBTQ unity and pride is also bound up in the creation of the Gay Pride parades. The original eight-color design by Gay activist Gilbert Baker has since been simplified to six colors, but the original 8-color version is still sometimes used.

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The "inclusive" pride flag on the left incorporates notions of the diversity of the LGBTQ community by adding a black and brown stripe to represent QPOC (queer people of color). The "progress" rainbow flag in the middle incorporates pink, blue, and white stripes to represent the transgender community and also incorporates black and brown stripes to represent the QPOC community. The flag on the right in a "progress" flag which includes the intersex symbol.

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Inverted Triangle

The inverted pink triangle is easily one of the oldest symbols for the LGBTQ community. Very popular and widely-recognized, the pink triangle is rooted in World War II times, and reminds us of the tragedies of that era. Although homosexuals were only one of the many groups targeted for extermination by the Nazi regime, it is unfortunately the group that history often excludes. Each prisoner in the concentration camps wore a colored inverted triangle to designate their reason for incarceration, and hence the designation also served to form a sort of social hierarchy among the prisoners. A green triangle marked its wearer as a regular criminal; a red triangle denoted a political prisoner. Two yellow triangles overlapping to form a Star of David designated a Jewish prisoner. The pink triangle was for homosexuals. In the 1970s, gay liberation groups resurrected the pink triangle as a popular symbol for the gay rights movement. As the pink triangle is historically a male symbol, the black triangle has similarly been reclaimed by lesbians and feminists as a symbol of pride and solidarity.

Lambda

Lambda is the Greek letter "L." It was first chosen as an LGBTQ symbol when it was adopted in 1970 by the New York Gay Activists Alliance. It became the symbol of their growing movement of gay liberation. In 1974, the lambda was subsequently adopted by the International Gay Rights Congress held in Edinburgh, Scotland. As their symbol for lesbian and gay rights, the lambda became internationally popular. No one seems to have a definitive answer why the lambda was originally chosen as a gay symbol. Some suggest that lambda, as the letter "L," stands for liberation (as in gay liberation movement). Others cite the use of lambda in physics to denote energy or wavelength. The ancient Greek Spartans regarded the lambda to mean unity, while the Romans considered it "the light of knowledge shed into the darkness of ignorance."

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Gender Symbols

Biological gender symbols are common astrological signs handed down from ancient Roman times. The pointed Mars symbol represents the male and the Venus symbol with the cross represents the female. Double interlocking male symbols have been used by gay men since the 1970s. Double interlocking female symbols have often been used to denote lesbianism, but some feminists have instead used the double female symbols to represent the sisterhood of women. These same feminists would use three interlocking female symbols to denote lesbianism.

Labrys

The labrys is a double edged hatchet or axe which was commonly used by matriarchal societies as both a weapon and a harvesting tool. Today, the labrys is a lesbian and feminist symbol of strength and self-sufficiency. Lesbians continue to use it as a common symbol of pride. The labrys also played a part in ancient Mythology. Demeter, the goddess of the earth, used a labrys as her scepter and religious ceremonies in her honor (as well as in honor of Hecate, the goddess of the underworld) are believed to included lesbian sex.

Equal Sign

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is one of the most prominent national LGBTQ rights organizations. Its logo consists of a blue square with a yellow equal sign. Many LGBTQ activist or interest groups incorporate an equal sign (equality) in their logo. The red and pink Marriage Equality (same-sex marriage) symbol is another good example.

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Queer Community

Gay

Achillean

Lesbian

Sapphic

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Bisexual

The flag consists of a broad magenta stripe at the top (representing same-gender attraction), a broad stripe in blue at the bottom (representing opposite-gender attraction), and a narrower deep lavender band occupying the central fifth (which represents attraction towards both genders). The blue and pink overlapping triangle symbol represents bisexuality and bi pride. The exact origin of this symbol, sometimes facetiously referred to as the "biangles", remains ambiguous. It is thought that the pink triangle represents homosexuality, as it does when it stands alone, while the blue stands for heterosexuality. The two together form the color lavender, a blend of both sexual orientations and a color that has been associated with homosexuality for almost a century. It's possible that the pink may represent attraction to females, the blue attraction to males, and lavender attraction to both. The bisexual moon symbol is sometimes used.

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Pansexual

Polysexual

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Asexual

The flag that symbolizes the asexual (ace) community uses the colors black, grey, white and purple. The black stripe represents asexuality. The grey stripe represents the grey area between sexuality and asexuality. The white stripe represents sexuality. The purple stripe represents community.

Demisexual

Graysexual

Aromantic

Queerplatonic

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Transgender

Popular symbols used to identify transgender, transsexual, and other gender variant (or gender queer) people frequently consist of modified gender symbols combining elements from both the male and female symbols. More specifically, the symbol depicts a circle with an arrow (as per the male symbol), a cross (as per the female symbol), and an additional striked arrow (combining the female cross and male arrow).

Non-Binary

Genderqueer

Agender

Gender Fluid

Intersex

Flags representing the intersex community might use the circle symbol or the Mercury symbol. The purple circle (meaning wholeness and simplicity) on the yellow field is example of a popular intersex flag, which originated from an Australian intersex organization. Some intersex people have adopted the colors of the transgender flag. The Mercury symbol is from Greek mythology, in which Aphrodite (Venus) had a child with Mercury (Hermes). The child was named Hermaphroditus and possessed both male and female genitalia. Thus the origin of the word hermaphrodite. Since Hermaphroditus didn't have a specific symbol, the symbol for Mercury was borrowed in this instance to represent an intersex person. Mercury's symbol has a cross extending down to represent femininity and a crescent moon at the top to represent masculinity. The two are placed at opposite ends of the circle to strike a balance between the male and female parts.

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Bears

The Bear culture or community (tribe), with its hypermasculine image and rustic physical type, uses earthy, natural colors along with a bear claw for its symbol of brotherhood.

BDSM

Symbols used in the BDSM (Kink, Leather) community and fetish subculture include the Triskelion icon and the Leather Pride flag. Colors used in the symbols of the BDSM community are black and blue.

Drag

The first Drag Pride flag was created, in 1999, by artist Sean Campbell and was called the Feather Pride Flag. The phoenix was used as a symbol of rebirth and fires of passion. The newer Drag Pride flag features a crown. These flags represent drag entertainers, drag queens, drag kings, and crossdressers.

Polyamory

Symbols used in the Polyamory community include the pi symbol and the eternity symbol. Colors used in the Polyamory flag are blue, red, and black.

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Safe Zone

While many safe zone programs on various college and high school campuses have individually unique logos to represent their particular program, the circle design has come to represent the universal safe zone symbol. The green circle (sometimes a symbol for LGBTQ allies) represents safety or protection. The inverted pink triangle represents the LGBTQ community. Together they depict protection for LGBTQ people. Sometimes stop signs are a part of many safe zone placards (suggesting "stop hate" or "stop bullying").

Straight Ally

The black and white stripes in the background (field) represent straight (heterosexual) people. A large rainbow colored "A" (for Ally) is added in the foreground to indicate straight support for LGBTQ people, issues, and concerns.

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