Rainbow Gadsden Flag

Overview

The design is a visual hybrid of two established traditions: the Gadsden flag of 1775 and the six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag of 1979. Its original creator and first publication remain unknown. ^[1]

The rainbow Gadsden flag's predecessor tradition dates to the 1990s. Queer Nation's San Francisco chapter operated Street Patrol, a neighbourhood safety patrol in the Castro District of about twenty people who wore fuchsia berets and T-shirts reading "Don't Tread on Me" and took training from the Guardian Angels. ^[2] Its logo, drawn by the cartoonist Angela Bocage, set a coiled rattlesnake inside a triangle with the motto on a banner above it. ^[2] The San Francisco Chronicle photographed a training session for its issue of 29 April 1991, naming the patrol members Erich Van Benschoten, Ellen Twiname and Terry Jones and their Guardian Angels instructor Christopher Ford. ^[2] That logo used a triangle rather than rainbow stripes and was not a flag, but it established the precedent of LGBTQ+ communities claiming Gadsden self-defence symbolism. ^[2][6]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

LGBTQ+ community

Movement

LGBTQ+ rights, Queer self-defense

National Context

United States

The design joins American Gadsden and Rainbow Pride visual vocabularies. Flags of the World cataloged it among American Gadsden variants and cited a Franklin County Libertarian Party Facebook album as an example of use by October 2013; that is one cited example, not a formal adoption or a claim of earliest use. ^[1]

Creators

Associated Figures

Attribution notes

No original designer, commissioning organization, or first publication has been identified, and no creator statement has been located. Later contributors are documented and are not the original designer: Tomislav Todorovic illustrated and wrote the rainbow Gadsden note published by Flags of the World on 23 October 2013, and the Wikimedia Commons user Thespoondragon made a vector reconstruction in February 2021. Christopher Gadsden is associated with the 1775 parent tradition rather than with this design. Merchants, photographers, uploaders, archives and news outlets that have carried the flag are not documented as its designers. ^[1][5]

Origin

Country

United States

Origin Type

national context only

Physical Origin Status

Specific place of creation unknown.

United States national and conceptual context. The specific place of creation is unknown, so no creation point is plotted and Indigenous land context cannot be responsibly attributed.

The LGBTQ+ adaptation of Gadsden imagery has deep roots. The earliest known LGBTQ+ use of the 'Don't Tread on Me' motto is Street Patrol, a Queer self-defence group affiliated with Queer Nation in San Francisco, whose members wore the motto on their T-shirts and whose logo, designed by Angela Bocage, placed a coiled snake inside a triangle. It was printed in the San Francisco Chronicle on 29 April 1991 and in SF Weekly on 1 May 1991. ^[2] The specific rainbow-striped version of the Gadsden flag emerged commercially by at least 2012, and Flags of the World recorded it in October 2013 as 'recently introduced'. ^[4][1]

The specific place of creation is unknown. The United States is well supported as the design's national and conceptual context: the Gadsden parent is American, the Rainbow Pride parent originated in San Francisco, the earliest located commercial and circulation evidence is American, and Flags of the World cataloged the design among American Gadsden variants. That context is not a verified physical design site, and no creation point is recorded. ^[1][4]

Dates & Chronology

Earliest located commercial catalog date

October 23, 2013

Documented

By 2013 to the present

Creation Bounds

No design date is documented. Amazon product metadata for ASIN B0083W32L6 reports a date first available of 18 October 2012, which is platform metadata for a commercial listing: it does not establish the first design, the first sale, the first public use, the designer, or that the present product artwork appeared unchanged in 2012. ^[4] The earliest located independent description is Flags of the World's note of 23 October 2013, which called the variant recently introduced and cited a Franklin County Libertarian Party Facebook album as an example of use; that album has not been independently preserved or verified. ^[1]

The flag has been commercially manufactured since at least 2013. Flags of the World recorded the design on 23 October 2013 as 'recently introduced', noting that most photographs of it were still from online shops but that examples of use were appearing. ^[1] The Amazon listing long cited here as evidence of a 2012 first appearance no longer displays a date of first availability; it is manufactured by TallFlags under the model number TFI-RF-024, a 3 by 5 foot printed polyester flag with two grommets, and its earliest customer reviews date from June 2016. ^[4] It is sold by dozens of independent vendors across Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Rad Pride, Gemmed Firefly, Flags Importer, Art Boutiki, and others. An SVG dated 8 February 2021 was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 9 February 2021 by user Thespoondragon under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, its snake taken from the Commons Gadsden flag file. The design is referenced on Wikipedia articles for the Gadsden flag, pride flag, LGBTQ symbols, and rainbow flag across multiple language editions. ^[5][4][7]

A related Queer use of Gadsden imagery is documented earlier. Cornell's archive records a 1991 drawing of the logo used by the San Francisco Street Patrol, a Queer self-defense group associated with Queer Nation, combining a coiled snake and the motto "Don't Tread on Me" with a triangle or ribbon. ^[6] It is a documented Queer self-defense antecedent rather than the same flag, and no evidence shows that the later Rainbow Gadsden designer knew or copied it. KQED's account of Queer Nation's street patrols supplies the organizational and historical context. ^[8] The archive's catalog title carries the spellings "San Franscisco" and "Gadsen glad"; this entry uses San Francisco, Gadsden and flag except when transcribing that title. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force appears in the archive's collection metadata and is not established as the logo's artist.

The flag's circulation is documented through commercial listings, the Flags of the World record, photographs at Pride events in Newcastle in 2015, Washington, DC in 2017 and Budapest in 2025, and the later political adaptation in West Hollywood. ^[1]

Political reuse. On 15 June 2016, rainbow Gadsden posters and stickers bearing the hashtag #ShootBack appeared on public fixtures in West Hollywood, three days after the Pulse nightclub shooting. Mayor Lauren Meister and Councilmember John Duran objected that the posters promoted retaliation or gun violence, while a person speaking for the group behind them described the message as one of self-defense. Contemporary reporting did not independently establish who designed or installed the posters. ^[3] Sabo told PJ Media that he spoke for the group behind the posters. ^[9]

Lineage

Indirect influences

Rainbow Pride Flag

Related flags

"Fuck Around and Find Out" Trans Pride Flag

A documented hybrid of two established traditions: the Gadsden flag tradition of 1775 supplies the coiled rattlesnake and the motto, and the six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag of 1979 supplies the field. The Gadsden flag is a civic and historical flag without an entry in this archive, so it is recorded here as an external parent rather than a graph edge. The derivation is visual, read from the artifact, because no creator statement identifies the sources. ^[1][5]

The 1991 San Francisco Street Patrol logo is a contextual antecedent rather than a proven direct parent. ^[6] The FAFO Trans Pride Flag is kept as a contextual relation, not a documented derivation, and no wider Rainbow Gadsden family is asserted from visual resemblance alone.

Colors & Symbolism

The rainbow field visually inherits the six-band structure associated with the Rainbow Pride Flag. The rattlesnake and motto inherit the Gadsden tradition's warning against intrusion and its language of vigilance, resistance and self-defense. No statement assigning meanings to this specific hybrid has been located. ^[1]

This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.

Coiled rattlesnake

Inherited from the Gadsden tradition: readiness to strike if provoked, and self-defense against intrusion.

'DON'T TREAD ON ME' motto

Inherited from the Gadsden tradition's Revolutionary-era language of warning and vigilance.

No designer has been identified and no statement of meaning for this hybrid has been located. The stripe meanings listed are the inherited associations of the six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag, and the snake and motto carry the Gadsden tradition's meanings; neither set was assigned to this design by anyone documented. The historical and political meaning of the Gadsden flag is contested and context-dependent, so libertarian self-defense is one reading among several rather than the only possible interpretation. ^[10][11]

No official palette has been located. The values above are the exact fills of Thespoondragon's 2021 Commons vector, read from its SVG source; they describe that reconstruction and are not a creator-issued specification. The 2013 Flags of the World illustration uses a different palette, measured from the file as #FF0000 red, #FF8000 orange, #FFF500 yellow, #008000 green, #33B3FF light blue and #6633B3 violet. Neither palette is canonical, and commercial renderings vary further. ^[5][1]

Two values here do not line up with the vector this entry publishes. That file paints a white the table did not carry, now recorded above without an identified element, and it does not paint the black listed for the snake and lettering: it draws them in #117F2B and #194119. Whether the black belongs to a different rendering has not been established.

Design

Aspect Ratio

Varies; 3:5 commercial flags and 2:3 documented digital renderings

Ratio Notes

Proportion is not standardized. Commercial listings include 3 by 5 foot flags, a 3:5 height-to-width proportion. The 2013 Flags of the World illustration is 324 by 216 pixels and the 2021 Commons vector is 900 by 600, both 2:3 height to width. ^[4][1][5]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

6

Layout

horizontal_stripes_with_emblem

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet

Center Symbol

Coiled rattlesnake on green foliage

Additional Symbols

'DON'T TREAD ON ME' text across the lower stripe(s)

Stable features across renderings: horizontal orientation; six approximately equal horizontal bands in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet from top to bottom; a centrally placed coiled rattlesnake; foliage or ground beneath the snake in many renderings; and "DON'T TREAD ON ME" across the lower area. Snake artwork, foliage, typography, colour values and proportions vary between renderings and manufacturers, and no modern reconstruction is an official specification. ^[1][5]

The composition follows the Gadsden layout with the plain field replaced by rainbow bands. The snake is a detailed illustration that varies by rendering rather than a reducible geometric form.

Usage & Adoption

Geographic Usage

United States, England (photographed at Newcastle Pride, 2015), Hungary (photographed at Budapest Pride, 2025)

Online Usage

Wikimedia Commons, Multiple online vendors

Event Usage

Newcastle Pride 2015 (photographed), Capital Pride, Washington, DC, 2017 (photographed), Budapest Pride 2025 (photographed)

Current Status

active

Documented circulation rather than formal adoption. Flags of the World cited a Franklin County Libertarian Party Facebook album as an example of use by October 2013; that album has not been independently preserved, and no organization is documented as having formally adopted the flag. ^[1] The flag was photographed at Newcastle Pride in 2015, worn as a cape at Capital Pride in Washington, DC in 2017, and photographed at Budapest Pride in 2025. Its imagery appeared in West Hollywood's #ShootBack poster campaign in June 2016. ^[3] Commercial versions have been sold through multiple online vendors. ^[4][7]

Image Archive

Street Patrol, San Francisco, 1991

Newcastle Pride 2015, Newcastle upon Tyne, England

West Hollywood #ShootBack coverage

Capital Pride festival, Washington, DC

Budapest Pride 2025, Budapest, Hungary

Commercial availability documentation

Discourse & Debates

• Whether the Gadsden flag can or should be reclaimed by LGBTQ+ communities
• Whether libertarian-Queer politics is a coherent position or a contradiction
• Whether the design primarily signals self-defense or gun culture
• The tension between the Gadsden flag's association with far-right movements and its potential as a Queer resistance symbol
• The Gadsden flag has been adopted by far-right groups including the Tea Party and militia movements, making Queer reclamation of the symbol contentious. Some Queer people see the rainbow Gadsden as reclaiming a symbol of self-defense, while others view using it as implicitly endorsing libertarian politics.
• Whether the rainbow Gadsden iconography supported the post-Pulse #ShootBack message of Queer self-defense (June 2016, West Hollywood) or instead promoted violence. The 30 unauthorized #ShootBack posters that appeared in West Hollywood after the Pulse nightclub shooting drew condemnation from West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister ('we don't believe in an eye for an eye, and we advocate against gun violence') alongside community defenses framing the posters as a refusal to be passive in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ mass violence. West Hollywood Councilman John Duran, who is gay, said the posters upset the community: 'Even during our heightened days of civil disobedience and protest, we have only advocated peaceful means, never arming ourselves and retaliating with violence.' ^[3] Capt. Holly Perez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office told the Los Angeles Times that she understood the sentiment and the First Amendment question but that 'it's a bad message,' and that 'it's our job to keep you safe.' ^[3] Sabo, speaking for the group behind the posters, rejected the reading that they called for retaliation, and put the group's position as self-defense: 'It is all of our responsibilities to be able to protect ourselves and our families. We can not do that if our elected officials disarm us.' He also said 'the gay community needs to realize that the police are there to respond, not protect.' ^[9]
• Buyers of the commercially printed flag describe their reasons for flying it in Amazon reviews. One, writing on 12 August 2016, called the combination "a very special symbol that has actually been around awhile" that "has just recently gained exposure due to the #shootback campaign after Orlando", and objected to reviewers rating the product by its politics: "Some of us have somewhat more conservative beliefs and traditional values and don't buy into all the gay liberal propaganda and activism that is actually preventing us from being able to live quiet, normal lives. This is our flag." Another, in October 2018, wrote simply "As a queer libertarian, this was everything I could ask for." A US Army veteran wrote in January 2018 that he would be "flying this flag very gaily indeed with the original spirit of the symbol in mind." ^[4]

Common misidentifications

• Sometimes confused with the FAFO Trans Pride Flag, a distinct design that replaces the rattlesnake with an alligator and changes the text.

Criticisms

• The flag's call to arms runs against what LGBTQ Nation described in 2016 as the Queer community's 'longstanding support of liberal causes such as gun control.' ^[12] West Hollywood's mayor and a gay member of its council both rejected the #ShootBack posters on those grounds. ^[3]
• Writing in Reason after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, Scott Shackford framed the Gadsden flag's own difficulty as a question of scope: 'Who is the "me" in "Don't Tread on Me"?' He answered that it 'depends on who is hoisting the flag,' since some who fly it 'clearly care only about government authority when it threatens their own liberty or the liberty of people like them.' ^[13]

The Gadsden flag's motto belongs to the Revolutionary era's language of defiance, and the flag has been reused repeatedly since, including by Confederate and secessionist causes. ^[11] In the later twentieth and twenty-first centuries it became associated with libertarian politics, the Tea Party, militia movements and parts of the far right, though its meaning has continued to shift with who carries it and is not fixed to any one politics. ^[10]

Queer people have reused the same imagery as a warning against anti-LGBTQ+ intrusion and violence, a use with its own documented history in the 1991 San Francisco Street Patrol logo. ^[6] Combining the two traditions leaves the result ambiguous: the same design can read as Queer self-defense, as a libertarian statement, or as an uneasy borrowing from a symbol with contested associations. Writing in Reason, Scott Shackford framed the underlying question as one of scope, asking who the "me" in "Don't Tread on Me" refers to, and answering that it depends on who is hoisting the flag. ^[13]

Flags of the World catalogs the design under the heading "Gay Variant - Gadsden Flag". That is historical catalog wording rather than a normalized name for the flag. ^[1]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Thespoondragon's 2021 Commons vector reconstruction

• Credit: Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Credit: fuseboxradio, CC BY-SA 2.0
• Credit: Vauia Rex, CC0
• Credit: Article and photograph via Daily Wire (Hank Berrien, June 15, 2016)
• Credit: Screenshot of the Amazon product page, August 2026; product imagery © the seller
• Credit: Angela Bocage (graphic design); NGLTF records #7301, Cornell University Library; rights held by the creator or their representatives
• Credit: 2021 vector reconstruction by Thespoondragon, based on the Flags of the World illustration, with the snake derived from the Wikimedia Commons Gadsden reconstruction. CC BY-SA 4.0.Rights CC BY-SA 4.0. Share-alike applies to derivative presentations, including any rasterization, resizing or optimization of this file. Rights information
• The Street Patrol logo, designed by Angela Bocage: a coiled rattlesnake inside a triangle under a "Don't Tread on Me" banner. The sheet carries the San Francisco Chronicle's photo feature of 29 April 1991, "Defense Against Gay-Bashing", and SF Weekly's article of 1 May 1991, "Squad patrols Castro for gay-bashers". This is the earliest documented Queer use of the Gadsden motto, nineteen years before the rainbow flag itself is recorded. · Credit: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force records, #7301, Box 48, Folder 21, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Rights held by the creator or their representatives. · Cornell University Library
• A rainbow Gadsden flag carried at Newcastle Pride, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 18 July 2015. The earliest freely licensed photograph of the flag in use located, and evidence of its circulation outside the United States. · Credit: Photograph by Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Wikimedia Commons
• Daily Wire's June 15, 2016 article. Its lead photograph catches both West Hollywood responses to the Pulse shooting in one frame: two #ShootBack poster variants, one with a coiled snake and one with a striking snake, on a pole in front of ChadMichael Morrisette's 'No One is Safe' installation of fifty mannequins. · Credit: Screenshot of the Daily Wire article by Hank Berrien; photograph as published there. · Daily Wire
• A rainbow Gadsden flag worn as a cape at the 42nd Annual Pride Festival in Washington, DC, 11 June 2017, the Capitol dome visible behind the stage. · Credit: Photograph by fuseboxradio, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Wikimedia Commons
• A marcher carrying a rainbow Gadsden flag at Budapest Pride, Bartók Béla út, Budapest, Hungary, 28 June 2025. · Credit: Photograph by Vauia Rex, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Wikimedia Commons
• The Amazon listing 'Don't Tread on Me (Rainbow) Flag 3x5ft' (brand: 'Gay', sold by DMSE Wholesale), photographed August 2026. The polyester flag's white patterned snake matches the flag carried at Newcastle Pride in 2015. The listing is the entry's earliest documented commercial source. · Credit: Screenshot of the Amazon product page, August 13, 2026. · Amazon