What do the Colors of the Pride Flag Mean?
What do the Colors of the Pride Flag Mean?
The original eight colors representing the Pride flag date back to 1978 and were hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. What do they stand for, you ask? Hot pink: sex, red: life, orange: healing, yellow: sunlight, green: nature, turquoise: magic/art, indigo: harmony/serenity, and violet: spirit.
What is the Story Behind the Rainbow Flag?
Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man and drag queen, designed the first rainbow flag in 1978. He was urged by gay politician, Harvey Milk, to come up with a fitting symbol of pride for the LGBTQ community that would be loud and proud. He chose a flag because flags are visible and out there, two things he was trying to promote, and he chose a rainbow because it is a natural flag in the sky that everyone always notices.
As the demand for the flag grew, the colors were decreased down to seven, omitting the hot pink because the fabric was unavailable to keep up with production. In 1979 the flag was altered one more time down to six colors, this time omitting the turquoise stripe due to a visibility issue involving the lamp post from which it hung in San Francisco.
The final version that we see today has six glorious colors: RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, AND VIOLET.
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