As excerpted on the website for his estate, Gilbert's memoir, Rainbow Warrior, includes his memory of deciding to make the rainbow flag: The trio encouraged Baker to create a positive emblem for the LGBTQIA+ community.īaker agreed and he looked to his community for inspiration, specifically those dancing at San Francisco's music venue Winterland Ballroom one night. In the late '70s, Baker was living in San Francisco when he met writer Cleve Jones, filmmaker Artie Bressan, and rising activist Harvey Milk. The First Rainbow FlagĮnter: Gilbert Baker, the man who would create the first rainbow pride flag. Still, activists recognized the need for a more empowering symbol. "Gay people wear the pink triangle today as a reminder of the past and a pledge that history will not repeat itself," read one 1977 letter to the editor in Time.
In the late 1970s, the pink triangle was somewhat reclaimed by the gay community. Throughout the Holocaust, the Nazis forced those whom they labeled as gay to wear inverted pink triangle badges, just as they forced Jewish people to wear a yellow Star of David. This triangle, however, had a loaded, anti-gay history. That is what the flag stands for,” she says.Before the rainbow pride flag was created, there was another symbol for the LGBTQIA+ community: a pink triangle. “I want people to accept us the way we are. (Manoj Verma/HT)Īctivist and Acharya Mahamandaleshwar of Kinnar Akhada, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, has a message for the society. Just as seeing a rainbow in the sky gives you joy, the flag also is a symbol of happiness.” Gurgaon’s first pride parade was a celebration of the LGBT identities. It makes people like me feel like part of a larger community.
“The LGBT pride flag symbolises hope and a feeling of co-existence. Read: Silence can be violence: LGBTQ student activistsįor LGBT activist Sonal Giani, the flag is a representation of feelings. It represents the diversity and celebrates the differences we all come with.” He says that the journey has been long and “there was not a single defining moment when the flag became the symbol for representation of the LGBT community.” Rafiul Alom Rahman, LGBT activist and founder of DU Queer Collective, says, “Just like the rainbow is a spectrum of colours, our flag is a spectrum of all sexualities. Read: Rainbow of hope: Will India vote for an LGBT resolution at UN?Īshok Row Kavi, activist and founder of the Humsafar Trust, says, “During the Stonewall Riots in New York, the activists decided on choosing the colours of the rainbow as they could mean to represent all sexualities.” Echoing this sentiment, Harish Iyer, an equal rights activist, says, “I believe that the flag is about all cultures and each colour represents all shades of the human personality.” ‘Acceptance’ is a sentiment that resonates across the community. The flag was first used in 1978 at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. The design of the flag is credited to Gilbert Baker, who designed it when, in the year 1977. Activists and participants at the recently held Gurgaon’s first pride parade. The original flag had eight stripes, but in its current form, it has six, namely red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), blue (harmony) and violet (spirit). As June - which is celebrated as the LGBT pride month - draws to a close, we speak to some members and activists from the community to understand what the flag represents. If you always wondered what the LGBT rainbow flag meant, here we help you decode it.