Over the
Rainbow
The Rainbow Flag, the universal symbol of our diverse worldwide LGBTI+ community, first flew at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Parade in 1978, the year Harvey Milk was elected to office.
Looking to replace the Pink Triangle (with its associations to the Nazis’ horrific treatment of LGBTI+ people) he asked artist Gilbert Baker to come up with a more positive symbol.
The flag was Baker’s idea and originally displayed eight stripes, each one representing one aspect of our community: 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.
So popular was the flag that Baker decided to have it mass-produced, but removed the pink as that was not a commercially available colour, and the indigo was replaced with royal blue. A further change came when the violet was removed to make the
colours symmetrical when they were hung along the Pride Parade route.
So the Rainbow Flag has constantly evolved. Today we proudly wave the Progress Pride Flag, designed in 2018 by Daniel Quasar and which now incorporates five chevrons, pink, light blue and white to represent the transgender community, and black and brown for people of colour.
And even now the Flag is developing. Recently designer Valentino Vecchietti has added the intersex flag – yellow with a purple circle in the centre – to the Pride Flag.
No matter which Flag you wave, wave it high, and wave it proud!
Looking to replace the Pink Triangle (with its associations to the Nazis’ horrific treatment of LGBTI+ people) he asked artist Gilbert Baker to come up with a more positive symbol.
The flag was Baker’s idea and originally displayed eight stripes, each one representing one aspect of our community: 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.
So popular was the flag that Baker decided to have it mass-produced, but removed the pink as that was not a commercially available colour, and the indigo was replaced with royal blue. A further change came when the violet was removed to make the colours symmetrical when they were hung along the Pride Parade route.
So the Rainbow Flag has constantly evolved. Today we proudly wave the Progress Pride Flag, designed in 2018 by Daniel Quasar and which now incorporates five chevrons, pink, light blue and white to represent the transgender community, and black and brown for people of colour.
And even now the Flag is developing. Recently designer Valentino Vecchietti has added the intersex flag – yellow with a purple circle in the centre – to the Pride Flag.
No matter which Flag you wave, wave it high, and wave it proud!
