So, let us introduce the different LGBTQ Flags and their meanings… There is some contention of meaning, or it has been lost to time – but our explanations should still help give some context. So, what do these different LGBTQ Flags say? Well, we have rounded them up and tried our best to explain the meaning behind them all. You put a rainbow flag on your windshield, and you’re saying something.” In a community as large and beautifully diverse as ours, it is natural that smaller tribes will want to carve out some recognition for themselves thus, the different LGBTQ Flags we have today.Īs Gilbert Baker, the original creator of the first rainbow Gay Pride Flag, said, “Flags say something. Imagine the rainbow flag is the US flag, and many of these other flags are like individual states underneath.
![when was the gay flag created when was the gay flag created](https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/10904778_072221-kgo-rainbow-flag-img.jpg)
While most queer individuals would also identify with the all-encompassing rainbow flag, many want to have their own individual flag. In fact, there are now over 50 flags recognized among the LGBTQ+ community, each used to symbolize different gender identities and sexual orientations within.
![when was the gay flag created when was the gay flag created](https://www.pride.com/sites/default/files/2018/06/13/pride-flags750x422_0.jpg)
Nor that there are now more inclusive versions that specifically recognize the trans, intersex, and POCs in our diverse community.Īnd when we are talking about the different LGBTQ Flags and their meanings, there is far more than just this one flag. That’s the big, long rainbow - from before me to well after me.While most of us are now familiar with the famous LGBT rainbow flag representing queer pride, many of us are not aware that it is different from the original rainbow Gay Pride Flag designed by Gilbert Baker. “Together, we’re changing our world, our planet, from a place of hate and violence and war to a place of love and diversity and acceptance,” he said in 2009. Then the committee organizing the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade cut turquoise to give the flag an even number of colors, so it could be flown as two halves in San Francisco.ĭespite the changes, Baker remained deeply proud of his work through his final years. First, pink was cut because the dye for it was apparently difficult to obtain at the time for mass production. Over time, the flag was cut down to six colors. “This was the hippie, 1978 meanings for the thing,” Baker said. The original Rainbow Flag had eight colors, each with an individual meaning: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity, and purple for the spirit.
![when was the gay flag created when was the gay flag created](https://www.goodnet.org/photos/620x0/28535_hd.jpg)
It connects us to all the colors - all the colors of sexuality, all the diversity in our community.” “I didn’t even think twice about what the flag would be,” he later said.
#WHEN WAS THE GAY FLAG CREATED HOW TO#
So Baker, who taught himself how to sew (in part so he could dress like David Bowie), came up with the Rainbow Flag in 1978.Īs Clive Moore wrote in Sunshine and Rainbows: Development of Gay and Lesbian Culture in Queensland, “Bright colors have always been forms of gay identification, particularly green, yellow, pink, lavender and purple.” Baker latched onto this history to create a new symbol in the Rainbow Flag. “It had a really horrible, negative origin about murder and Holocaust.” It was put on us,” Baker told In the Life Media in 2009. The pink triangle has been used by some LGBTQ organizations, such as Act Up (which was founded during the early HIV/AIDS crisis), in an attempt to reclaim it from its terrible origins.īut not everyone is comfortable with it. This was the symbol that the Nazis used to mark people who were sent to concentration camps for their homosexuality and other supposed sexual deviancy. The flag was meant to replace an earlier symbol for gay people with horrific roots: the pink triangle. So how did Baker come up with the flag, and what does it mean, anyway? Google’s timing is notable: Not only is it LGBTQ Pride Month, but Baker died earlier this year, on March 31.
![when was the gay flag created when was the gay flag created](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/74/07/46/15759755/11/rawImage.jpg)
This Friday’s Google Doodle is honoring Gilbert Baker’s 66th birthday.īaker is someone most people likely aren’t familiar with, even though they’ve probably seen his work many, many times - particularly in the next 28 days as the world celebrates LGBTQ Pride Month.