The rainbow flag itself was first adopted in 1978 as an eight horizontal stripe rainbow colored flag. In 1999, Pride Month gained official national recognition by President Bill Clinton who declared June to be “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.”
LGBTQ+ Pride Month has become an annual occurrence each June commemorating the violent events at the Stonewall Inn. By the 1980s and 1990s, the tenor for many of these events had shifted from protests to celebrations of pride and acceptance. Shortly after the Stonewall Riots in June 1969, pride marches and demonstrations were being organized in cities throughout the United States. Let’s explore the history of LGBT Pride Month and the meaning behind the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag - and its many iterations. Most of us know these flags are representative of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer pride, and that June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, but how many of us know what those flags represent - and why there seems to be so many variations. Thus, for the symbol of gay pride, both colors were dropped entirely. Another change that happened was that indigo was replaced by royal blue, a more classic variation of the color itself.Every June, whether it’s on television or social media, whether you’re walking down the street or visiting your favorite establishment, rainbow flags can be seen everywhere. Plus, some people did not like the odd number of stripes on the flag with the absence of hot pink. At the time, both hot pink and turquoise were hard to manufacture. However, it lacks the colors pink and turquoise. The gay pride flag is very similar to the first two mentioned pride flags. Paramount flag Company and even Gilbert Baker used this for the purposes of mass distribution and it became widely accepted as the iconic LGBTQ flag.
This version of the Pride Flag was created solely out of lack of supply of hot pink fabric. Here are the meanings behind each color of the traditional LGBTQ pride flag: Baker brought the traditional pride flag to the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on Jand hoisted his flag for the first time. However, it wasn’t until 1978 that the colors of the rainbow officially flew to represent the LGBTQ community. It was said that he drew inspiration from Judy Garland’s song entitled “Over the Rainbow”. As a result, Baker came up with this flag. Baker thought of the rainbow as a symbol for the LGBTQ community after he was challenged by gay rights activist Harvey Milk to sew a symbol of pride and unity for the gay community. San Francisco artist and army veteran Gilbert Baker’s pride flag is considered the traditional LGBTQ flag, with the color pink on top of the normal colors of the rainbow. Listed below are several variations of the LGBTQ pride flag and what they represent. But of course, you’ve already seen other versions of the pride flag. The traditional rainbow flag has symbolized the modern LGBTQ movement since 1977. Variations of the peace rainbow flag have the word Pace, the Italian word for peace, and Eirini the Greek word for peace, printed in the center. Protesters got the inspiration from demonstrations against nuclear weapons that used similar multi-colored banners. It was first used as such during a peace march in Italy in 1961. Buddhist Flagīefore becoming a global symbol of LGBTQ Pride, the rainbow flag was a symbol for peace. In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at all the iterations of the rainbow flag and how it was ultimately used as a symbol of peace and pride not just by the LGBTQ community, but other groups throughout history. However, did you know that aside from representing the escape from binary gender norms, the rainbow flag was also used by other groups and cultures to represent other concepts? Hence, members of the LGBTQ community have come up with variations for the rainbow flag.
The rainbow flag is representative of all types of genders, sexualities, and sexual orientations. The rainbow flag is one of the most common symbols of the LGBTQ community today, but it is not as straightforward as others may seem to think.