In 1978, Gilbert Baker of San Francisco designed and created the rainbow flag in response to the need for local activists to rally around a common cause. Originally it was designed to have eight stripes:

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hot pink for sex,

red for life,

orange for healing,

yellow for sun,

green for serenity with nature,

turquoise for art,

indigo for harmony, and

violet for spirit.

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Although this flag may have been influenced by other multicolored flags that represented liberal causes across the city, this was the first distinctive and representative flag that was able to unite LGBT activists. The flag was first used in 1978 in the San Francisco Pride Parade. Gilbert and a team of approximately thirty volunteers hand stitched and dyed two large prototype flags for the parade.

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It was just after the assassination of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in November of 1978 that the flag began to take shape as a symbol of LGBT recognition and pride. The gay community needed a symbol that could provide unity and comfort during the period of mourning for Harvey Milk, as well as general violence against the LGBT community that was erupting throughout the city. The original eight-striped version of the flag was later replaced by a more simple six-striped version, which is the version that is recognized globally today as the flag for the LGBTQ movement. This six-striped version includes red, orange, yellow, green, royal blue, and violet. The omission of certain colors was initiated as a necessity at the flag printing shop - some colors, such as hot pink, simply do not fare as well when mass produced. Thus, the flag’s composition of colors today was not strategically narrowed. It just so happens that the six-striped version that Baker began to print en masse for the 1979 Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco took off.

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In juxtaposition with other sexuality symbol flags, such as the gay liberation flag, which features a pink triangle on a white background (as well as many varied versions), the rainbow flag is not meant to represent a single cause, but all causes. Despite its widespread use today throughout the world as a symbol for gay pride and liberation, it was originally crafted to simply promote values such as unity and harmony; thus, many LGBT causes have adopted it, but its intent is to provide hope and peace for all sects of society.

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[read more about the origins of the rainbow flag on FlagSpot]