The Rainbow Flag
The Rainbow Flag will celebrate its 25th year as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride this year.
In 1978, Gilbert Baker of San Francisco designed the flag that is now recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers and has become the most visible symbol of gay pride.
No pride parade would be complete without the inclusion of a giant rainbow flag or 'Pride Flag' - usually being carried by dozens, if not hundreds, of proud GLBT folk.
The San Francisco artist who originally designed the rainbow flag a quarter of a century ago wanted it to be a symbol of pride in a time of rampant anti-gay sentiment.
The flag as created by Baker, contained eight colours in its original form: fuchsia, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple and pink.
Each colour was meant to represent something about the gay community. For instance, green was often associated with homosexuality in Victorian England. In the post-Stonewall late 1960s, 'Purple Power' was a phrase often associated with the gay rights movement. The colour pink is a direct descendant of the pink triangles used to identify homosexual men in Nazi Germany. All of the colours woven into the flag are also meant to represent the diversity of the gay community.
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