The Rainbow Flag

Pink stands for sexuality.
Red stands for life.
Orange stands for healing.
Yellow stands for the sun.
Green stands for nature.
Blue stands for art.
Indigo stands for harmony.
Violet stands for spirit.

In my opinion, the rainbow flag is the most commonly used and recognized GLBT pride symbol. The colors from the rainbow flag have been used on everything from a map of the USA to metal rings on a necklace as an alternative way of showing GLBT pride.

The rainbow flag was created by Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978. Originally, there were 8 colors, all of which were assigned a meaning by Baker.

He dyed and sewed the first one with his own hands. However, when he approached a flag company about mass producing the flag but was told that "hot pink" was not available commercially. So, the flag had to be reduced to 7 colors.

In November 1978, San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor was assassinated. In memory and in hope that this kind of hate crime would never be repeated, the Pride Parade of 1979 was planned in order to show the strength and sheer numbers of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender population in San Francisco. The parade committee decided to use Baker's flag, but they only wanted a 6 color version so that 3 colors could be on each side of the street. As a result, the indigo stripe was also removed which created the 6 stripe flag that we know as the rainbow flag today.

The flag was first only used in the San Francisco area but quickly spread all over the country and eventually, the world. The rainbow flag is now recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers as a valid flag representation of the GLBT community.