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 |
 The
first Gay Flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San
Francisco artist, who created the gay flag in response to a
local activist's call for the need of a community symbol.
(This was before the pink triangle was popularly used as a
symbol of pride.) Using the five-striped "Flag of the Race" as
his inspiration, Baker designed a gay flag with eight stripes:
pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
According to Baker, those colors represented, respectively:
sexuality, life, healing, sun, nature, art, harmony, and
spirit. Baker dyed and sewed the material for the first gay
flag himself - in the true spirit of Betsy Ross. Baker soon
approached San Francisco's Paramount Flag Company about mass
producing and selling his "gay flag". Unfortunately, Baker had
hand-dyed all the colors, and since the color "hot pink" was
not commercially available, mass production of his
eight-striped gay flag became impossible. The gay flag was thus
reduced to seven stripes.
In November 1978, San Francisco's gay community was stunned
when the city's first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, was
assassinated. Wishing to demonstrate the gay community's
strength and solidarity in the aftermath of this tragedy, the
1979 Pride Parade Committee decided to use Baker's gay flag.
The committee eliminated the indigo stripe on the gay flag, so they could
divide the colors evenly along the parade route - three colors
on one side of the street and three on the other. Soon the six
colors were incorporated into a six-striped gay flag that
became popularized and that, today, is recognized by the
International Congress of Flag Makers.
In San Francisco, the Gay Flag is everywhere: it can be seen
hanging from apartment windows throughout the city (most
notably in the Castro district), local bars frequently display
the gay flag, and Gay Flag banners are hung from lampposts on
Market Street (San Francisco's main avenue) throughout Pride
Month. Visiting the city, one can not help but feel a
tremendous sense of pride at seeing this powerful symbol
displayed so prominently.
Although the Gay Flag was initially used as a symbol of pride
only in San Francisco, it has received increased visibility in
recent years. Today, the gay flag is a frequent sight in a number of
other cities as well - New York, West Hollywood, and
Amsterdam, among them. Even in the Twin Cities, the gay flag
seems to be gaining in popularity. Indeed, the Gay Flag
reminds us that ours is a diverse community - composed of
people with a variety of individual tastes of which we should
all be proud. The gay flag is highly recognizable.
The gay flag is also one of the more colorful flags. The
rainbow on the gay flag truly reminds us of our nation's
diversity. |
