Philly Rainbow Flag 3x5ft Polyester

The Philadelphia pride flag takes the six-colour rainbow and adds black and brown stripes across the top, to put LGBTQ+ people of colour visibly into the symbol. This Flags Importer version, sold as the Philly Rainbow Flag, is a full 3 × 5 ft polyester flag with header tape and two metal grommets, made to fly from a pole, hang from a balcony or cover a wall.

Where the Philly pride flag came from

The flag was launched by the City of Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs, working with the design agency Tierney, as part of a campaign called "More Color More Pride". According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the black and brown stripes represent Black and Latino members of the community, who had long said they felt left out of mainstream Pride. The flag drew debate when it appeared, both over changing the classic rainbow and over credit for earlier similar designs, and it has since been flown well beyond Philadelphia.

How it relates to other Pride flags

Under the black and brown sit the familiar red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. The later Progress Pride flag took the same idea further, moving black and brown into a chevron with the trans flag's light blue, pink and white. Some people fly the Philly flag because it was the first to add those stripes; others prefer the newer chevron design.

Build and hanging

Colours are dye-sublimated, printed on one side and soaked through so the stripes also show on the back. The edges are double-stitched, with four rows of stitching on the fly end. Clip the grommets to a halyard or slip them over brackets, and take the flag in during strong winds to keep the fly end from fraying.

Specifications

• Brand: Flags Importer
• Size: 3 × 5 ft
• Material: 100-denier polyester, dye-sublimated
• Header: header tape with two metal grommets
• Stitching: double-stitched edges, four rows on the fly end
• Use: indoor or outdoor
• Design: black and brown stripes above the six rainbow colours