Gilbert Baker Pride Flag

This is the original rainbow flag, with two more colors than the version in use today.

Gilbert Baker, who designed it in 1977, assigned a meaning to each stripe.

• Hot pink: Sex
• Red: Life
• Orange: Healing
• Yellow: Sunlight
• Green: Nature
• Turquoise: Magic and art
• Indigo: Serenity
• Violet: Spirit

However, demand for the flag soared after openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk was assassinated on 27 November 1978. To keep up with demand Baker and Paramount Flag Company dropped the pink stripe as there wasn’t enough hot-pink fabric available.

Baker had to change the flag again in 1979. When it was hung vertically from lamp posts in Market Street, San Francisco, the post hid the center stripe. The obvious answer was to have an even number of stripes, so Baker dropped the turquoise and the six stripe flag was born.

But after Baker died in 2017, people became more interested in the history of the flag, so this original design is now sometimes getting an airing.

Tris Reid-Smith/GSN