It was like a rainbow…A Rainbow Flag was a conscious choice, natural and necessary. Baker writes of this revelation, “We were all in a swirl of color and light.
He hit upon the idea for the rainbow after a night out dancing, observing the colorful and widely varied members of his community, each with their own sense of style and identity. Instead, Baker writes, “We all felt that we needed something that was positive, that celebrated our love.” He had looked at the flags of various countries flying at San Francisco’s Civic Center and wanted the same thing for his community. In his memoir Rainbow Memoir, he writes that his inspiration came in part from wanting to find an alternative to the pink triangle, which had been used by the Nazis in World War II to denote homosexuality and thus had a negative connotation. You’ve seen the rainbow flag (one of many LGBTQ+ pride flags) flying high at Pride parades and outside people’s houses, but how did the rainbow come to be associated with this community? What does the rainbow symbolize? Keep reading to find out.Īrtist Gilbert Baker, who was a gay man and drag queen, is the creator of the original rainbow pride flag, which he designed in 1978 specifically to be a flag for the wide-ranging gay community. With Pride Month almost here, we wanted to explore one of the most iconic symbols of the LGBTQ+ community: the rainbow.
