Gay Pride Rainbow Flag 90 x 150 cm

Originally flown in San Francisco during the pride event of 1978, the rainbow flag is now a global symbol of peace and unity for the LGBTQ+ community. In its design, each colour is meant to have different symbolic meanings like pink for sex, red for life, and green for nature, to name a few. At the time of its creation, the pink triangle was still the only symbol being used to represent the gay community. Because the pink triangle was originally used as a tool for Nazis to identify and persecute homosexuals, Harvey Milk, (the first) openly gay politician in California at the time wanted a new, more uplifting symbol to be presented at the pride festival that year. Milk asked a prominent, local gay artist at the time, Gilbert Baker, to create something new to represent and inspire the queer community. The flag was created that year and it had eight stripes. From hot pink to violet, the first flag was hand-dyed and stitched together by volunteers and flown with pride for the first time on June 22, 1978.

Unfortunately, later that year Harvey Milk was assassinated. The San Francisco community felt inspired to continue using the rainbow flag and therefore it became more popular and was intended to be flown again in the 1979 pride parade. As popularity grew, large scale production started and the company producing the flag ran out of pink fabric to complete the flag. Because of that, the pink stripe was simply pulled from the design of the first version of this symbol of unity and pride.

Right before the 1979 parade, there was another change made. The organizers wanted to flank the parade with half of the flag on each side, but because seven colours wouldn’t split evenly they made another adjustment and pulled turquoise from the arrangement and change the blue to a royal instead of indigo. This is how the flag which we are all familiar with today, was born.