A History Of The Rainbow Pride Flag

The rainbow flag has been used by the gay community since its creation in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, and artist in San Francisco. Openly gay activist and politician Harvey Milk approached Baker and asked him to come up with a symbol of pride for the gay community. Previously the community had been using the pink triangle symbol, which had been reclaimed by queer people after it had been used by Nazi Germany to identify and persecute homosexuals. This pink triangle was used as a symbol of remembrance and action against persecution.
The original pride flag included eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet, where each stripe stood for a different aspect of the gay community.

The original Pride Flag design by
Gilbert Baker in 1978.

Pink represented sexuality, red stood for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic and art, indigo for serenity, and violet represented spirit. The first two rainbow flags were hand dyed and stitched by volunteers for the pride parade in 1978.
After the assassination of politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk in November of 1978, demand for the rainbow flag design skyrocketed, and the Paramount Flag Company began to sell versions of the flag that were made from stock rainbow fabric which did not include the pink stripe. Due to the high demand, Gilbert Baker also began to make more and more rainbow flags, and soon was unable to keep the pink stripe in his version of the flag, due to the unavailability of the pink fabric.

"It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant like a bolt of lightning - that this was their flag. It belonged to all of us." -Gilbert Baker

Yet another color of the flag was cut out when the organizers of the 1979 pride parade in San Francisco wanted to split the flag in half in order to decorate both sides of the parade route, for which they would need an even number of colors, so they got rid of the turquoise stripe, leaving the flag with only six stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
The rainbow flag received nationwide attention after a tenant in a West Hollywood apartment sued his landlords for not permitting him to hang his rainbow flag on his balcony. This suit was settled out-of-court, and the tenant was allowed to hang the rainbow flag.

"The flag is an action - it's more than just the cloth and the striped. When a person puts the Rainbow Flag on his car or his house, they're not just flying a flag. They're taking action." -Gilbert Baker

The "Philadelphia Flag"

One of the most recent variants of the rainbow flag includes a black and brown stripe above the red stripe to show support for people of color within the LGBTQ+ community, as people of color experience the worst of the discrimination within the community.  This flag was created by the city of Philadelphia in 2017.
In 2018, a designer from Portland, Oregon created another flag which included the black and brown elements from the Philadelphia Flag, as well as the trans flag. This variation was intended to bring the marginalized population of the LGBTQ+ community, such as trans people,

The "Progress Flag"

people of color, and those living with (and those we have lost to) HIV/AIDS, to the forefront of the movement. This version of the flag, however, has received some push-back from the black and brown communities for taking too much inspiration from the Puerto Rican Flag, and not monetarily supporting black and brown people enough. The creator of the "Progress Flag" stated on the kickstarted fundraising page, "We need to always keep progress moving forward in all aspects of our community."
The LGBTQ+ community still uses many variations of the rainbow flag, and it continues to be a symbol of pride and freedom, globally.
It is important to remember those who came before us, those who fought for our rights to be proud, and for our ability to display our rainbow flags with little affliction.