Of course, no one owns the rainbow, but the flag is more than a symbol of hope – it’s a symbol of safety. It’s a community that has long faced oppression – being gay is still illegal in more than 70 countries. He didn’t trademark it as he wanted everyone to be able to use it.Īfter the assassination of gay San Francisco city supervisor, Harvey Milk, the flag was firmly adopted by the LGBT+ cause, its followers became the “rainbow community”. Gay rights activist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in 1978 in San Francisco. We must consider the significance of the flag and the role it plays for a marginalised community, which has fought hard for its identity and acceptance.
Around one in five LGBTQ people will experience a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation or gender. Late last year, the BBC obtained figures from 45 police forces in the UK that showed the number of reported homophobic hate crime cases almost trebled – from 6,655 in 2014-15 to 18,465 in 2019-20. But it is not like the extensive history attached to the use of the flag by the LGBT+ community wasn’t well known.ĭuring LGBT History Month, it’s time to take stock. It starts as a cute and innocuous gesture, and before you know it you can buy an iced-caramel latte in a cup with the same design. It takes a second to repost a picture of children in Italy drawing rainbows for their health workers. In addition to the iconic rainbow flag, several other flags with different symbols and colour combinations exist to celebrate their identity orientation under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, including asexual, bisexual, gender fluid, and non-binary, and several others.In a social media age, movements happen fast, often without a lot of thought. The additional dark and earthy coloured stripes address variety and inclusivity. There is another location-specific version also available with added meanings, such as the eight stripe flag created in 2017. The rainbow flag of six colours red, orange, yellow, green, royal blue, and violet. The original eight stripe flag designed by Baker had the following meanings for each colour.īecause of difficulty in sourcing fabric pink and turquoise colour was subsequently removed from the rainbow pride flag. The pride rainbow flag is the pride symbol of the LGBTQ community and each colour on the flag has a specific meaning. Here we look at what every colour in the rainbow flag means. It was first flown in 1978 at the ‘Gay Freedom Day parade in San Francisco and became the most popular symbol of gay pride. Afterwards, Baker thought a rainbow flag would represent the beautiful diversity of this community. A pink triangle has symbolized, the gay rights movement. It was initially designed by artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker in 1978. this episode has highlighted how important it is that we all recognise the difference between the seven stripe rainbow, which has recently been used as a symbol of hope and gratitude for key. The design of the flag changed over a year and each colour has a specific meaning. The famous flag has become a symbol of pride and support for lesbian, transgender, gay, bisexual, and pansexual people. Pride month and the iconic rainbow pride flag are correlated and it’s impossible to think of pride month without imagining the iconic rainbow flag.