“Our oppressors, our enemies if you will, the people who are trying to stop us, are formidable with their religions and their laws and their hatred.”īaker now resides in New York, where he’s penning a book about his experience as the creator of the Rainbow Flag. “Let’s remember that in 80 countries it’s still illegal to be gay and in ten countries or so it’s a death penalty,” he told CBS. The Rainbow Flag is like other flags in that sense, it belongs to the people.” And indeed, the flag is in the public domain, thus enabling infinite commercial reproduction on everything from beach towels to neckties to dog collars.ĭespite the progress the LGBT movement has made since Baker originally created the flag in the 1970s, he said the community still has much work ahead. The color pink was not widely available for commercial use at the time, so it was dropped - as, eventually, was indigo - to give the flag an even six stripes.Īlthough Baker’s design that has seen consistent recognition and served as a worldwide symbol of the LGBT movement, he said flags are “something that everyone owns and that’s why they work. So Baker set to work, originally producing a version of the flag with eight stripes, each color with a distinct meaning: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for the human spirit. ( PHOTOS: LGBT Pride Celebrations Around the World) That really fit us as a people because we are all of the colors. (you can search 'Pride parade Chicago,' for instance). “It’s beautiful, all of the colors, even the colors you can’t see. It goes back to June 28, 1969, when police raided a gay club called the Stonewall Inn in New York. “The rainbow is a part of nature and you have to be in the right place to see it,” Baker told CBS. Hoping to represent diversity and acceptance, Baker soon settled on the image of a rainbow. Given Baker’s influential role in the gay community, in 1978 the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade commissioned him to design a new symbol that could be used year after year. He eventually befriended Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay elected official. After being discharged from the Army during the Vietman War, Baker settled in San Francisco, where he taught himself to sew and soon began crafting banners for gay marches and events, CBS Chicago reports. Follow is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender pride month, and the rainbow flag - that iconic symbol for gay pride - is flying from Athens to San Francisco to Brazil.Įnter artist Gilbert Baker, the man who first came up with the flag’s design some 34 years ago.