In Baker’s original vision, the red, orange, and yellow stripes represent life, healing, and sunlight. Initially, the flag featured eight colors but due to production purposes and commercialization, it was whittled down to six. The first iteration of the Pride flag emerged in San Francisco in 1978 when artist and activist Gilbert Baker debuted it at the Gay Community Center. In recent years, the Pride flag has rapidly changed and evolved, first to bring attention to issues facing BIPOC people, then to ensure that the entire trans community was included in a single and more fully comprehensive symbol.īut the Pride flag has also been a fluid document from its inception. Intersex people have long been underrepresented and are rarely visually included in the Pride imagery that is ubiquitous every June. Vecchietti’s new intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag is also a reflection of recent conversations around inclusivity underneath the broader LGBTQ+ umbrella.
As Carpenter wrote in a 2013 blog post for Intersex Human Rights Australia, “We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how we want to be.” In that light, the circle that Vecchietti added to the Pride flag isn’t just a statement of inclusion, it’s a symbol of an ongoing human rights struggle.
