What is vexillology? In short, it is the study of the symbolism, history, and meaning behind a flag. You must be wondering why I think vexillology is important for the LGBTQ+ flag, especially since it isn’t the usual conventional flag we see (like a country’s flag). I think it’s equally as important to include in vexillology because, well, it’s a flag so it automatically falls under vexillology.
However, the pride rainbow flag isn’t the only flag of importance for the history of queer people, and it isn’t the only flag that holds meaning for the community. The rainbow flag is probably the first flag you’d associate with the community. The flag represents people of all gender identities, and sexualities, and shows equal rights for everyone. The point of the flag isn’t to show that the community is better than others, it’s to show that despite all of the struggles that they have to go through, there is still solidarity. That there will always be someone to rely on.
In fact, each colour stripe represents something different in the rainbow flag. Red stands for life, orange stands for healing, yellow stands for sunlight, green stands for nature, blue represents serenity, and purple represents spirit. There’s even been a change to the pride flag that includes new colours like black and brown: which represent all the people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community. The addition of the colours pink, baby blue, and white represents the transgender community as a sort of homage to the transgender flag. This flag is called the "Progress Pride Flag”.
While I won’t be analysing the importance of every flag (such as lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, etc.), I hope it is understandable that the variety of colours that are in each flag represents something different. Vexillology in the queer community does matter to its members because it shows love and support, as well as the beautiful meaning of each flag. I highly encourage everyone to read up on the meanings of the flags! It's a topic you can easily get lost in and is definitely worth researching. It may seem like a small and unimportant thing, but I promise you, to people of the community, when someone who isn’t part of it shows support, it really just means the world to them.