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Gay European flags

Flag at Europride, 2016
"Gay European flags, 2005
Rainbow European flag, 2005
"Gayland" summer camp's flag, 2004

See also:

Flag at Europride 2016

Gay European flag - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 25 March 2017

The most recent gay European flag has appeared at Europride 2016 in Amsterdam, 6 August 2016 (photo, photo, photo). It is derived from the European flag, but the field is pink and the stars are coloured as follows:
- Red: 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock;
- Purple: 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock;
- Blue: 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock;
- Green: 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock;
- Yellow: 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock;
- Orange: 5 o'clock and 11 o'clock.

Tomislav Todorović, 25 March 2017

"Gay European flags"

"Gay European flag" - Image by Clare Dimyon, 21 April 2007

The "Gay European flag" is a standard European Union flag but with differently coloured stars:
- Red: 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock;
- Orange: 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock;
- Yellow: 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock;
- Green: 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock;
- Blue: 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock;
- Purple (or pink): 5 o'clock and 11 o'clock.

The rainbow colours are a symbol for Gay people of unity through diversity and that is an excellent symbol for Europe too.
It is also worth noting that the rainbow and Europe have another connotation within this flag that of a commemoration of those forced to wear coloured triangles (here represented by the stars) in the Concentration Camps including Gay people:
- Red: Communists;
- Orange: Gypsies;
- Yellow: Jews;
- Green: "Criminals";
- Blue: Slavs;
- Purple (and Pink): Jehovah's Witnesses and (Homosexuals).
Due to an accident of the flag making process, the purple stars actually became pink stars, which is kind of appropriate since the Jehovah's Witnesses are not very well disposed to Gay people.
The 12 stars become symbolic too because around there were around 12 million deaths in the Holocaust, six million of them Jews and more than five million of other groups. Each star stands for one million death.

This flag is used by Gay people within Europe to assert both Gay and European identity and as a sign of "solidarity" between Gays of the older European Union countries with those of the newly joined postcommunist states, whose legislation and custom and practice and law is not as advanced as say United Kingdom and Netherlands and Germany.

The flag (photo) was designed by Clare Dimyon in 2005 for use at a "wedding" between a British woman and a Polish woman on 30 April 2005, the first anniversary of Poland's accession to the European Union (and coincidentally the anniversary of Hitler's death). The flag was seen at a number of Gay Pride and European events since (Riga PRIDE 2007, 2008 and Warsaw Parada Równości 2008 and then during the PRIDE Solidarity tours at various locations at PRIDE and LGBT events around central and eastern Europe including Moldova PRIDE, 2nd National LGBT Conference of Ukraine (2009), Baltic PRIDE - Riga 2009, Bucharest GayFest 2009, Sofia PRIDE, Skopje in FYROM, Warsaw Parada Równości 2009 and 2010, British Government Reception for LGBT in St Petersburg, Baltic PRIDE - Vilnius 2010, Baltic PRIDE - Tallinn 2011, Dúhový PRIDE Bratislava 2010 and 2011, Budapest PRIDE 2009-2011, Czech PRIDE - Tabor 2009, Czech PRIDE - Brno 2010 and Czech PRIDE - Prague 2011.)
To date there is only one rainbowed EU flag, which has to have the green star re-inked each year with a green felt pen but that is now part of the long tradition of the Rainbow-ed EU flag which is greeted with affection by LGBT around central and eastern Europe.
Clare Dimyon was also responsible for the raising of the rainbow flag at British embassies in Riga 2008, Warsaw 2008, Bratislava 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and Budapest 2009, 2010 and 2011. This idea "proliferated" to Brazil, where the Brazilian PRIDE committee were startled to be invited to the British Embassy to help put up a rainbow flag. The raising of the rainbow flag was a symbolic gesture to show the support of the British Government for the human rights and dignity of LGBT people...and their friends and families.
Other actions/gestures included receptions for LGBT+ people and joint embassy statements in support of LGBT people. The highest number of nations to date were the embassies of 18 countries at Budapest PRIDE 2011, including Croatia and the embassies of 16 countries in Bratislava 2011 including the ambassadors of Poland and Hungary.

Clare Dimyon, 23 March 2012

"Gay European flag" - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 8 April 2010

Another variant of gay European flag has appeared on an image, possibly of a poster, announcing an international meeting of right-wing gay people's organizations, which took place in Paris on 24 May 2005. The participants were GayLib France (the host), GayLib Italia and Lesbians and Gays in The Union (in German, Lesben und Schwulen in der Union). The meeting was intended to express the participants' support for the adoption of the European Constitution, which was shown by the aforementioned image, its largest part occupied by the photo of a European flag with the stars coloured as follows:
- Yellow: 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock;
- Green: 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock;
- Blue: 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock;
- Purple: 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock;
- Red: 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock;
- Orange: 5 o'clock and 11 o'clock.

It is not quite clear whether this was the photo of a real flag or the stars were re-coloured by the image editing software. The same is true about the relations of this flag with the one created in Great Britain about the same time or with the one created in Latvia in 2004. The time of its introduction suggests that the flag from Latvia might have inspired this design, but that it was probably introduced independently from the British-created flag, otherwise it would have copied the colour pattern, and putting the yellow star at the top position might have easily been the first solution to suggest itself, as this is the original colour of the European flag.

"Gay European flag" - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 12 August 2018

Another variant of the flag with blue field (photo) was seen at the Taiwan Pride 2015 in Taipei on 31 October 2015. They were brought there by the staff of European Economic and Trade Office, who wanted to support the improvement of LGBT people's rights in Taiwan; in order to do so, they attended the event and handed out 600 flags of Europaen Union. On these flags, the stars were colored as follows:
- Purple: 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock;
- Red: 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock;
- Orange: 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock;
- Yellow: 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock;
- Green: 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock;
- Blue: 5 o'clock and 11 o'clock.

The flags were introduced a day earlier at the international conference of LGBTI activists from Asian countries, which was organized with the support of European Economic and Trade Office. At the Taiwan Pride, the flags were photographed as carried both by Taiwanese (photo) and European (photo) participants.
[Taipei Times, 31 October 2015]

Tomislav Todorović, 12 August 2018

Rainbow European flag

Rainbow European flag - Image by Tomislav Todorović & Željko Heimer, 29 September 2007

A rainbow flag with the flag of the European Union in the canton (photo, photo) was seen during the Gay Pride in Geneva, 2 July 2011.
This flag was also seen on a blog, where it was used to symbolize the confrontation of the Kaczyński government of Poland with the gay population, not only of that country, but of the whole European Union as well.
The flag was used again in Pisa, Italy on 15 May 2018 during the observation of International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (photo). The flag had been previously used in 2012, presumably at the same event (photo).

Tomislav Todorović & Željko Heimer, 24 January 2020

Rainbow European flag - Image by Tomislav Todorović & Željko Heimer, 5 July 2021

A flag with similar design (photo) was seen at the Christopher Street Day in Berlin on 25 June 2011. There, the canton was square-shaped and occupied less than 1/2 of the flag width (approximately 4/9 of it). The shades of most of the rainbow colors also differed.

Tomislav Todorović, 5 July 2021

"Gayland" summer camp's flag, 2004

"Gayland" summer camp's flag - Image by A.L., 15 November 2009

This flag design was created for gay summer camp "Gayland", that took place in Latvia in 2004 - but the flag was designed in 2003. T-shirts, CDs with camp photos and other souvenirs with this logo were distributed to all participants of the summer camp.

A.L., 15 November 2009