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United Kingdom: Gay Pride Union Jack flags

Last modified: 2023-09-16 by rob raeside
Keywords: union jack |
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• Gay Pride Union Jacks
• Rainbow Union Jacks

See also:

• Union Jacks of other colours
• United Kingdom

Gay Pride Union Jacks

Sexual orientation flags from the United Kingdom are derived from the national flag:

Pink Union Jack

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

This is the common name for several different flags derived from the Union Jack by replacing red and/or blue colours with pink to make them gay pride symbols. The first of these flags is derived from the Union Jack by replacing the blue field with the pink one. It usually has the aspect ratio of 3:5, as seen in London, on 2006-07-01: www.flickr.com/photos/aguichard/179709257/ and on 2008-07-05: www.flickr.com/photos/misterrad/2643987378; in Leeds, on 2007-08-05: www.flickr.com/photos/wsogmm/1020120051 or in Brighton, on 2006-08-05: www.flickr.com/photos/pleonasm/210913124 and on 2007-08-04: www.flickr.com/photos/misterrad/1375568790.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

However, flags with the aspect ratio 1:2 can also be noticed sometimes, like the one seen in London, on 2008-07-05: www.flickr.com/photos/maggiejones/2640943575.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

Another flag keeps the blue field, while the red areas are turned into pink. It is offered for sale in several online flag shops, like here: www.flagsupplies.net, here: www.britishflags.co.uk/unionjack.htm, or here (the photo of a real flag's detail shown): www.theflagman.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_16&products_id=221 and seems to have been manufactured only with the aspect ratio 3:5 so far. It might have been invented, in my opinion, so as to make a flag more acceptable to users from Scotland - see the comment given here (no matter that it was written in a humorous way): www.flickr.com/photos/aguichard/179709257.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

The third flag, probably the one which deserves the most to be called the Pink Union Jack, replaces red and blue with light and dark shades of pink, respectively (the latter inclines towards magenta). It was seen in Sydney, Australia, on 2009-03-07, during the Mardi Gras parade: www.flickr.com/photos/funky-plum/3348417770.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 December 2009

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 26 July 2013

Another variant, which deserves this name more than most of others, replaces red and blue with dark and light shades of pink, respectively, dark shade inclining towards magenta. Its photos, taken at the London Pride on 2012-07-07, can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_malloy/7526964262, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ensignsteve/7560552722, and http://www.flickr.com/photos/jplme/7568529332.
Tomislav Todorovic, 26 July 2013

The same flag was also used at the London Pride 2014. The photos, taken on 2014-06-28, which display it as being attached to the front side of a double-decker bus, can be found here:
https://flickr.com/photos/rich135792468/14358930237/
https://flickr.com/photos/jeffsof/14536739252/
https://flickr.com/photos/josephheskett/14349705309/

The next year, it was used at the London Pride again. This time, it was attached to a different vehicle. The photo, taken on 2015-06-27, can be found here:
https://flickr.com/photos/massimousai/19029521469/
Tomislav Todorovic, 9 March 2020

Rainbow Union Jacks

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 4 August 2023

Union Jack may also be combined with the Rainbow Flag. Most frequently, it is done by replacing both red and blue areas with the six-striped rainbow pattern - or more precisely, by superimposing white areas of the Union Jack over the rainbow stripes. On these flags, the red stripe is always at the top (except if they are flown upside-down) and the cross of England and its borders are made narrower than in the "regular" Union Jack, so that their overall width is a bit smaller than that of the yellow and green stripes taken together. The ratio is always 3:5. The earliest currently known example of its use is from Brighton Pride 2013 [1]. It was used again in Cardiff, at Pride Cymru 2014 [2]. Later examples of its use include:
- London Pride 2016 [3]
- Capital Pride Parade 2017, in Washington, DC [4]
- Manchester Pride 2017 [5]
- Capital Pride Parade 2018, in Washington, DC [6]
- Glasgow Pride 2018 [7]
- Brighton Pride 2018 [8]
- Europride 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden [9]
- Manchester Pride 2018 [10]
- Capital Pride Parade 2019, in Washington, DC [11, 12]
- Anti-Brexit campaign in Lancaster, in 2019 [13]
- Chicago Pride Parade 2019 [14] - a good example to reveal only one "right side up" possible
- London Pride 2019 [15]
- Capital Pride Parade 2022, in Washington, DC [16, 17]

It shall be borne on the reader's mind that the above examples are far from making a comprehensive list; they are just the ones which display the flag very well.

Sources:
[1] Flickr - Photo from Brighton Pride, on 2013-08-03: https://flickr.com/photos/bearclause/10037426063
[2] Pride Cymru at Facebook - Photo from Cardiff, on 2014-07-07: https://www.facebook.com/photo
[3] Wikimedia Commons - Photo from London Pride, on 2016-06-21: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_June_21_2016_060_Gay_Pride_(27787943706).jpg
[4] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2017-06-10: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/35136946821
[5] Flickr - Photo from Manchester Pride, on 2017-08-26: https://www.flickr.com/photos/64012169@N08/36656438462
[6] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2018-06-10: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/28847427998
[7] Wikimedia Commons - Photo from Glasgow Pride, on 2018-07-14: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glasgow_Pride_2018_112.jpg
[8] Flickr - Photo from Brighton Pride, on 2018-08-04: https://flickr.com/photos/sheeprus/29977817038
[9] Wikimedia Commons - Photo from Stockholm, on 2018-08-04: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_for_Peace_Stockholm_Europride_Parade_1319.jpg
[10] Flickr - Photo from Manchester Pride, on 2018-08-24: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chorltondave/29324585797
[11] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2019-06-08: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/48088133548
[12] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2019-06-08: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/48088096136
[13] Lancaster for Europe at Facebook - Photo uploaded on 2019-06-22: https://www.facebook.com/LancasterForEurope
[14] Chicago GoPride website - Photo from Chicago Pride Parade, on 2019-06-30: https://chicago.gopride.com/photos/photo.cfm?id=8745&pid=313186
[15] Flickr - Photo from London Pride, on 2019-07-06: https://flickr.com/photos/mangakamaidenphotography/48394454776
[16] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2022-06-11: https://flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/52146907204
[17] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2022-06-11: https://flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/52145650442

Tomislav Todorovic, 4 August 2023

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 August 2023

Another approach to combining the Union Jack with the Rainbow Flag is to leave the cross of England and all white areas unchanged and to repaint the field and the saltire of Northern Ireland as follows:
- field parts next to the hoist edge: orange;
- saltire of Northern Ireland, arms at the hoist: yellow;
- field parts at the hoist, next to the vertical arms of the cross of England: green;
- field parts at the fly, next to the vertical arms of the cross of England: blue;
- saltire of Northern Ireland, arms at the fly: purple/violet;
- field parts next to the fly edge: pink/magenta.

This color set might represent the color wheel rather than rainbow, however there are known examples of seven-striped flags which combine six rainbow colors with pink: qq-rb.html#7nov, so these might have provided some inspiration.

More frequently than on the flags, this pattern appears on the shirts [1, 2], banners [3, 4, 5], floats decorations [6, 7, 8, 9], hand-held signs, which are frequently heart-shaped [10-15], and even as the tattoos (most likely temporary) [12]. However, the flags are used as well. Those with the ratio 1:2 have been used at London Pride 2017 [16], Taiwan Pride 2018 [17], Pride Parade Santiago 2019 [18, 19] and Paris Pride 2019 [9, 20].

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 August 2023

The flags may also have the ratio 3:5. Those were used at Tel Aviv Pride 2018 [21], Paris Pride 2018 [22], Christopher Street Day 2019, Berlin [23, 24] and Taiwan Pride 2019 [25, 26].

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 August 2023

Very rarely, the ratio 2:3 is also employed. Such flags were seen at Paris Pride 2018 [27, 28].

Sources:
[1] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2018-06-09: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/27852497997
[2] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2018-06-27: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/42142404735
[3] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2018-06-27: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/43044676401
[4] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2019-06-25: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/48132106726
[5] Chicago GoPride website - Photo from Chicago Pride Parade, on 2019-06-30: https://chicago.gopride.com/photos/photo.cfm?id=8745&pid=313186
[6] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2016-06-11: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/27672273975
[7] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2017-06-10: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/35100424592
[8] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2018-06-09: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/27852492827
[9] Alamy photo Archive - Photo from Paris Pride, on 2019-06-29: https://www.alamy.com/this-bus-represents-the-uk-at-the-paris-2019-gay-pride-image258907864.html
[10] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2016-06-11: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/27351939540
[11] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2017-06-10: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/35136940241
[12] Flickr - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, in Washington, DC, on 2018-06-09: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinusa/41821239415
[13] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2018-06-27: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/43044680611
[14] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2019-06-25: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/48132103061
[15] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2019-06-25: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/48132197397
[16] Flickr - Photo from London Pride, on 2017-07-08: https://flickr.com/photos/135274659@N02/35705233591
[17] Flickr - Photo from Taiwan Pride, in Taipei, on 2018-10-27: https://flickr.com/photos/wadewumedia/46164945371
[18] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2019-06-25: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/48132196297
[19] Flickr - Photo from Pride Parade Santiago, on 2019-06-25: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukinchile/48132103106
[20] Getty Images photo archive - Photo from Paris Pride, on 2017-06-24: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/activists-pose-waving-rainbow-union-jack-flags-as-they-take-news-photo/800562568
[21] iStock photo archive - Photo from Tel Aviv Pride, on 2018-06-08: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/20th-tel-aviv-pride-israel
[22] Shutterstock photo archive - Photo from Paris Pride, on 2018-06-30: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/paris-francejune-302018-british-float-gay
[23] Wikimedia Commons - Photo from Christopher Street Day, Berlin, on 2019-07-27: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSD_Berlin_2019_-_Lucas_Werkmeister_-_15_-_Country_Pride_Flags.jpg
[24] Wikimedia Commons - Photo from Christopher Street Day, Berlin, on 2019-07-27: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSD_Berlin_2019_-_Lucas_Werkmeister_-_16_-_Country_Pride_Flags.jpg
[25] Flickr - Photo from Taiwan Pride, in Taipei, on 2019-10-26: https://flickr.com/photos/olvwu/48963469197
[26] Flickr - Photo from Taiwan Pride, in Taipei, on 2019-10-26: https://flickr.com/photos/olvwu/48963289551
[27] Shutterstock photo archive - Photo from Paris Pride, on 2018-06-30: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/parisfrance-june-30-2018-paris-gay-1128448082
[28] Shutterstock photo archive - Photo from Paris Pride, on 2018-06-30: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/paris-francejune-302018-british-float-gay-1130121962

Tomislav Todorovic, 5 August 2023

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