Playing Out - The Way To Live Gay Life

The Origins Of The Gay Pride Flag

Posted by Steve on Thu 22 Mar 2012 at 00:29

Most people now would recognise the famous rainbow striped pride flag, but are you aware of the flag history and meaning?

(Photo: A Girl And Her Camera on Flickr)

The flag is now known around the world but first appeared in California in the 1970s as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride, the eight colours reflect the diversity of the LGBT community.

Pink: sexuality
Red: life
Orange: healing
Yellow: sunlight
Green: nature
Turquoise: magic/art
Indigo/blue: serenity/harmony
Violet: spirit

San Francisco based artist, Gilbert Baker designed the flag, which consists of six stripes, in 1978 for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade, some say he was inspired by Judy Garland's performance of 'Over the Rainbow'.

Over the years the design of the flag has changed, the pink stripe was removed due to the early costs of acquiring the unusual coloured fabric and the later turquoise was dropped so that the flag had an even number of strips when hung vertically.

Since 1979, from top to bottom, the flag is made up of bold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet stripes.