The Pride Flag: Origins, Evolution, and Meaning
- reframe52
- Jun 1, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 5
In honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we want to share the origin story of the Rainbow Pride Flag. Many of us have seen it - but not all know how it came to be. Let's dig in!
Gilbert Baker, an artist and drag queen, first created the Rainbow Flag in 1978.
Because of his sewing talents, Baker started making banners for many gay rights marches and protests. His work was well-known in San Francisco, where he caught the attention of Harvey Milk - the first openly gay politician in a major U.S. city. Just a few months before his assassination, Harvey Milk invited Baker to make a flag for the Gay Freedom Day Parade he was organizing in San Francisco’s U.N. Plaza in 1978.
In an interview with MOMA, Baker mentions that the 1976 U.S. bicentennial first made him think about the power of flags to convey pride and unity:
“We needed something beautiful, something from us. The rainbow is so perfect because it really fits our diversity in terms of race, gender, ages, all of those things. Plus, it’s a natural flag —it’s from the sky!”
Baker’s rainbow flag originally had 8 colors with symbolic meanings – hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit.
Baker and 30+ comrades hand dyed and sewed the original flags - one with the 8-color design, and one of the U.S. flag with rainbow stripes substituted for red and white- in giant trash cans filled with water and dye. They snuck into laundromats late at night to rinse and wash thousands of yards of fabric, and dragged them onto the roof to dry.
Later, Baker had the flag mass-produced by the Paramount Flag Company, as Harvey Milk’s assassination prompted increased demand for the pride flag. The pink stripe was first eliminated due to the expense of the dye, and the turquoise stripe was eliminated due to a design choice for a 1979 parade that required an even number of colors, leaving the flag with the well-known 6-color design.
The flag has been revised and adapted by both Baker and by others in the U.S. and abroad to respond to current events faced by the LGBTQIA+ community and to increase its inclusivity.
Gilbert Baker lived his life proud to see his design celebrate the LGBTQ+ community worldwide. He later incorporated the flag into a drag persona - Busty Ross.
Happy Pride!
Sources:
https://gilbertbaker.com/
https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/06/17/moma-acquires-the-rainbow-flag/
https://hyperallergic.com/653648/gilbert-baker-first-pride-flag-unveiled-at-glbt-historical-society-san-francisco/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rainbow-pride-flag-history_n5b193aafe4b0599bc6e124a0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/29/how-the-rainbow-became-the-symbol-of-gay-pride/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2015/06/89702/gilbert-baker-gay-pride-rainbow-pride-flag-creator
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