Meaning of each color of the gay flag
![meaning of each color of the gay flag meaning of each color of the gay flag](https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/1223375632/0x0.jpg)
The pink triangle challenges that notion and defies anyone to deny history. Although homosexuals were only one of the many groups targeted for extermination by the Nazi regime, it is, unfortunately, the group that history often excludes. The pink triangle is rooted in World War II times and reminds us of the tragedies of that era. The pink triangle is easily one of the more popular and widely-recognized symbols for the gay community. In 1994, a huge 30-foot-wide by one-mile-long rainbow flag was carried by 10,000 people in New York's Stonewall 25 Parade. It is even officially recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers. This six-color version spread from San Francisco to other cities, and soon became the widely-known symbol of gay pride and diversity it is today.
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Due to production constraints - such as the fact that hot pink was not a commercially-available color - pink and turquoise were removed from the design, and royal blue replaced indigo. The next year Baker approached San Francisco Paramount Flag Company to mass-produce rainbow flags for the 1979 parade. The flags had eight stripes, each color representing a component of the community: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. Baker and thirty volunteers hand-stitched and hand-dyed two huge prototype flags for the parade. Borrowing symbolism from the hippie movement and black civil rights groups, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in response to a need for a symbol that could be used year after year. Use of the rainbow flag by the gay community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. The rainbow also plays a part in many myths and stories related to gender and sexuality issues in Greek, Native American, African, and other cultures. The multicultural symbolism of the rainbow is nothing new - Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition also embraces the rainbow as a symbol of that political movement. Using color to establish meaning, Baker conceived a flag that would empower his “tribe” and a “rainbow of humanity” motif to represent the community’s diversity.The rainbow flag has become the easily-recognized colors of pride for the gay community. In 1978, while preparing for that year’s Gay Freedom Day celebration, City Supervisor Harvey Milk (1930–1978) and other local activists appealed to Baker, the co-chair of the Decorations Committee, to create a new symbol for the LGBTQ community to be unveiled at the event in June. He quickly became well known for his sewing skills and flamboyant creations, such as drag costumes and political banners for street demonstrations. Gilbert Baker arrived in San Francisco in 1972 during the early years of the Gay Liberation movement.
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Thought to have been lost for over 40 years, the fragment, shown in the banner above, was recently rediscovered and is the only known surviving remnant of the two inaugural rainbow flags. In April 2021, the GLBT Historical Society received an archival donation of an extraordinary, unique piece of history that we are unveiling during the Pride season: a fragment of one of the two monumental rainbow flags first raised on Jin San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.ĭisplaying the original design’s eight colored stripes, it was created by Gilbert Baker and hand-stitched and dyed with the help of volunteers and friends, including Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran and Paul Langlotz.