The two rainbow flags can be seen flying in the distance. “I actually saw a picture that showed a placard saying it was a replica,” Beswick said, comparing it to historical reproductions used in films like Milk or When We Rise.Ī view from the stage in front of San Francisco City Hall at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade. When Charley Beal, president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, contacted Baker’s sister on the eve of Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, she passed along the flag and marchers carried it at New York Pride in 2019, all unaware of its history. Upon his death in 2017, friends cleared out Baker’s apartment and shipped most of his effects to a sister in Texas, with some memorabilia sent to the GLBT Historical Society.
Baker, Beswick adds, took the flag with him when he moved to New York in 1994 to execute a mile-long flag exhibit for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.
Its brief prominence in San Francisco is all the more poignant considering that 1978 was the only year that supervisor Harvey Milk marched in the parade he would be assassinated five months later. The remnant we have now, it’s about 28 ft along the hoist and 10 to 12 ft of the fly – still quite large and beautiful.” Gilbert went back to retrieve them and took this one and cut off the damaged portion. It sustained water damage and it had mildew on it. “Who knows, maybe it’ll turn up someday,” Beswick said. Measuring 60 ft by 30 ft, the two flags – one with stripes in the style of the American flag, and this one without – were later displayed and stored at a now-shuttered LGBTQ+ community center, where one was stolen. Photograph: Mark Rennie/Courtesy of the Gilbert Baker Foundation Other variations of the Pride flag include Genderfluid, Genderflexible and Genderqueer Pride flags for the Leather, Bear, and BDSM communities a Polysexual Pride flag Agender and Aromantic Pride flags and even a rarely-seen Straight Ally Pride Flag with a large rainbow triangle amidst black and white stripes.The two original eight-color rainbow flags flying at United Nations Plaza in 1978 during San Francisco Gay Freedom Day. The Asexual Pride flag, created in 2010, has four stripes: Black to represent asexuality, grey for demisexuality, white for allies, and purple for community. A variation on the Poly flag turns the black stripe into a triangle and replaces the Pi symbol with a yellow stripe. The Pansexual Pride flag is comprised of pink (representing attraction to femmes), yellow (attraction to nonbinary people), and blue (attraction to masc people) stripes.Ī less widely adopted Polyamory Pride flag has a blue (represention openness), red (passion), and black (solidarity) stripe with a gold (emotional attachment) Pi symbol in the middle. As designed, the pink represents same-sex attraction, the blue represents other-sex attraction, and the thin purple stripe stands for the breadth of the gender spectrum. It has a pink block at the top, a thinner purple stripe, and then a blue block at the bottom. The Bisexual Pride flag has also seen common use for many years. Lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and even leather groups created symbols for their communities, and over time came into more widespread use. But over the years, groups within the queer community felt the need to assert their presence as well. Over the years, the rainbow-striped Pride flag came to be thought of as the sole icon of Pride. “Gay” as a catch-all term for anything gender-nonconforming is a fast-vanishing vestige of patriarchy. Today, Pride is much more inclusive of lesbians, bisexual people, and people who are trans or poly or asexual or queer. Though it was often called the “Gay Pride Flag” at first, it’s now come to represent a much broader community than just gay men. Baker and a friend named Lynn Segerblom, also known as Faerie Argyle Rainbow, developed a rainbow version that had eight colors, with a hot pink stripe later removed because it was difficult to dye.
There, he befriended Milk, who challenged him to create a symbol for what was then more commonly called the gay community. Baker had served in the Army, and moved to San Francisco following his honorable discharge.
The history of the Pride flag can be traced back to Harvey Milk, the famous San Francisco city Supervisor, and his friend Gilbert Baker in the 1970s. None of those symbols was particularly widespread in modern times, however.