The first flag was over sixty feet long, thirty feet wide, and Baker, then 27 years old, sewed it by hand.Īfter that iconic debut, Baker changed the design, removed pink and turquoise and settling with the current six-hue configuration, which was easier to mass produce.
Baker assigned a meaning to each of the colours: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for harmony and violet for spirit. Baker had been commissioned to design a symbol for the LGBTQ community by his friend Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California.īaker drew inspiration from the US national flag and rainbows, which display the colours of the light spectrum in roughly the same sequence as the flag. Designed by gay artist and activist Gilbert Baker, it originally had eight colours – two more than today’s modern version.
The first rainbow flew in San Francisco's United Nations Plaza for Gay Pride Day, on June 25, 1978.
