History of the pride flag

A quiz popped up this week with a question about the rainbow flag, that ubiquitous six-color symbol of LGBT diversity, specifically what is the meaning behind one particular color (orange). It may surprise many that the flag, which has been an unofficial symbol of pride and the LGBT community since 1978, once contained eight colors each with its own meaning.

Back in the late 1970s, as the gay rights movement was building up in cities like New York and San Francisco, gay men began to settle in the newly emerging communities. Gilbert Baker was one man who had been discharged from the army and found himself in San Francisco at the beginning of the rights movement. He’d taught himself to sew and made banners and flags for protests and even world leaders. Active in the San Francisco gay community, Baker was friends with Harvey Milk. It was Milk who asked Baker to create a logo of sorts for the LGBT rights movement. (Baker recreated the original flag for the film Milk).

Baker’s original rainbow creation contained a more accurate eight colors, but due to cost and the limitations of fabric colors for manufacturing, in subsequent years the rainbow flag was quickly reduced first to seven colors then settling on the six we know now. That first year Baker and volunteers hand-dyed the fabric to create the two original flags which featured in that years’ parade.

Colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky

hot pink: sexuality
red: life
orange: healing
yellow: sunlight
green: nature
turquoise: magic/art
indigo/blue: serenity/harmony
violet: spirit

It is said that some original seven-color banners hung vertically on Castro lamp posts and because of the odd number of colors the middle color was obscured. This lead to one legend behind the loss of the seventh color (or the merger of turquoise and indigo into blue). Paramount Flag Company of San Francisco, where Baker worked, began making and selling the six-color flag once hot-pink had been dropped because of the unavailability of the fabric.

Baker was recently in Toronto for World Pride and spoke to many news outlets sharing the rich history and meaning behind the pride flag.

“It’s natural, it fits our diversity,” Baker told the CBC in Toronto. “We are all the colors, all the ages, all the races. It’s a magical, wonderful part of nature to symbolize our lives that way and it expresses our sexuality in a very beautiful, empowered way as a human right.”

As Baker mentions, the rainbow comes from nature and one of the colors appropriately represents that. Each color of the rainbow has a meaning as Baker originally envisioned, including the two no longer seen on the current flag. Amazingly hot pink, for sexuality, is one of the lost colors, which has its own important place in history. The pink triangle, the Nazi badge for gays during the holocaust, had previously been a symbol for the gay community, so including pink in the flag to equate sexuality was a potent reminder of our community’s persecution.

Once the six colors had been established, the combination has, as we’ve all seen, been adopted around the world and applied to everything from architecture to zippo lighters. The flag has also spawned variations for bears, bisexuals, leather and transgender prides, while the six-color bars design has also been adapted into the flags of many countries as a symbol of gay pride in that nation (although in the case of the British variation, the Union Jack appears in shades of pink).

The rainbow flag has managed to become from grassroots, an enduring and lasting modern and flexible symbol of the diversity of our community. Sure plastering our cars, pets and parties with the pride rainbow can lead to some kitsch moments, however unlike protected symbols, such as the Olympic rings, the pride flag is owned by everyone and anyone.