The Original Pride Flag (the Gilbert Baker Pride Flag)
The original rainbow flag was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978. He created the flag for the Gay Freedom Day celebration in San Francisco, after receiving appeals from City Supervisor Harvey Milk and other local activists to create as a symbol of pride for the gay community. He hand-stitched and dyed it with the help of Lynn Segerblom (also called Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran, Paul Langlotz, and other friends and volunteers. It was first shown on June 25, 1978 in the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco.
Each color of the Gilbert Baker pride flag has its own meaning:
- Pink: sex
- Red: life
- Orange: healing
- Yellow: sunlight
- Green: nature
- Turquoise: art, magic
- Blue/indigo: serenity, harmony
- Purple: spirit
The Gilbert Baker 7-Stripe Pride Flag
Harvey Milk was assassinated in 1978, which caused an increased demand for the 8-stripe flag. This led the Paramount Flag Company (based in San Francisco) to sell a version of the flag with seven stripes, since pink fabric was not readily available. Gilbert Baker also dropped the pink stripe from the design as he began producing the flag more.
The 6-stripe Rainbow Flag
In 1979, Gilbert Baker modified the pride flag again. He removed the turquoise stripe from the 7-stripe pride flag to make the flag have an even number of stripes. This was for decorating the street lamps with banners along the route for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day parade. The even number of stripes made it easy to put each half on lamp poles on opposite sides of the street. This rainbow flag is the most common variation of the gay pride flag. It was officially established as a symbol for the whole LGBTQ+ community in 1994, when Baker made a mile-long version of the flag for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Sources and Image Attribution
Sources:
- GLBT History Society's "The Rainbow Flag"
- Wikipedia's "Rainbow flag (LGBTQ)" page
- Britannica's "How Did the Rainbow Flag Become a Symbol of LGBTQ Pride?"
- San Francisco Travel's "A Brief History of the Rainbow Flag"
Images:
- "Six-striped LGBT flag" by Guanaco and subsequent editors, public domain
- "Gay flag 8" by Gilbert Baker, vector graphics by Fibonacci, public domain
- "Seven-striped LGBT flag" by Fibonacci, public domain
