In 1978 Gilbert Baker designed the first gay pride flag, collaborating with Lynn Segerblom to create a symbol for people to express pride in their sexuality. The flag had eight colors, each one symbolizing a different aspect of life.

The original flag represents eight categories, one for each color. The hot pink color representing sex, red representing life, orange: healing, yellow: sunlight, green: nature, turquoise: magic and art, indigo: serenity, and violet: spirit. In later years hot pink and turquoise would be dropped for manufacturing reasons because the colors bled so easily, and the six colored pride flag would be the one we all know today.

This flag debuted at the Gay Freedom Parade in 1978. Since then, the original flag has been updated, dropping two of the colors, and so many more flags have been created for the many different branches of the world community.

Before the flag was created, pride was represented with different symbols. LGTBQ+ used a pink triangle as a visual representation of gay pride. Gay prisoners often wore this triangle in Nazi concentration camps, and the most notable usage of the symbol occurred during the HIV/AIDs epidemic.

After the popularity of the original gay flag, others started to create flags to represent different members of the LGTBQ+ community. In 1998 Micheal Pages designed the bisexual pride flags with three colors that represented same sex attraction, different sex attraction, and overlap of attraction towards both.

In 1999, Monica Helmes, a transgender woman, created the trans flag. With the stereotypical blue and pink, white was added to represent the transitioning and undefined gender aspect of the flag. Since the 90s there have been over 20 flags created, each unique to represent every unique person in the community.