Gay Pride Rainbow Flag History: 9 Things To Know About The LGBT Symbol

There are rainbow flags everywhere as LGBT Pride Month comes to a close. Culminated by the Supreme Court decision, which legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide, LGBT people all over the country, especially have reason to be proud, and fly their rainbow flags high.

But where did the rainbow flag come from? How did it become a symbol of LGBT pride? We’ve got the answers here for you -- everything you need to know about the history of the rainbow flag.

1. The rainbow flag was created by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978.

2. The first Gay Pride flag was made by hand with the help of almost 30 people who dyed strips of material in trash cans then sewed and ironed them together.

3. The first Gay Pride flag flew on June 25, 1978, at the United Nations Plaza in downtown San Francisco.

4. The rainbow flag was deemed an official flag by the International Flag Association in 1986.

5. Prior to the rainbow flag, the symbol for Gay Pride was a pink triangle. The pink triangle is derived from Nazi rule, in which homosexual people in concentration camps wore pink triangle badges to distinguish that they were gay. After Hitler’s rule, the LGBT community reclaimed the meaning of the pink triangle as a positive; however, Gilbert Baker wanted a symbol that didn’t have such a dark past.

6. There are several versions of the rainbow flag. The original rainbow flag has eight stripes of different colors, each which have a specific meaning: hot pink (sex), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sun), green (serenity with nature), turquoise (art), indigo (harmony), violet (spirit).

7. There is a version of the rainbow flag with seven stripes, in which the hot pink stripe is removed. Baker dropped the pink stripe because the Paramount Flag Co., which he worked with to mass produce the flag, did not have hot pink material readily available.

8. The current and most commonly known rainbow flag has six stripes; in addition to the pink stripe the turquoise stripe is also removed. After the assassination of Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly-gay commissioner, the Gay Freedom Day Committee used the rainbow flag to honor him during the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. The committee, now called the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, removed the turquoise stripe so the flag could be evenly split and carried along opposite sides of the parade route.

9. Gilbert Baker holds two world records for the largest flag. The first is for the rainbow flag he made in 1994 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the second is for the rainbow flag he made in 2003 commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original Rainbow flag he created in 1978.