The pride flag was envisioned and flown for the first time in San Francisco. For better or worse, most of global queer culture is us centric.

Most of the flags are also copyrighted or copylefted, to some degree or another. It's a jumbled mess. But in general no one is profiting unless you are literally buying a physical flag, as all of them fall into fair use or can be freely licensed for use in commercial products.