The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline It has been suggested that Baker was inspired by Judy Garland's singing Over the Rainbow. In 1988, the rainbow flag came to nationwide attention in the United States after John Stout sued his landlordsĪnd won when they attempted to prohibit him from displaying the flag from his West Hollywood, California, apartment balcony. Changing the flag design to one with an even number of stripes was the easiest way to rectify this, so the turquoise stripe was dropped, which resulted in a six stripe version of the flag.
The lamp posts of San Francisco’s Market Street, the center stripe was obscured by the post itself. As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he dropped the hot pink stripe because of the unavailability of hot-pink fabric. The flag consisted of eight stripes Baker assigned specific meaning to each of the colors: hot pink: sexuality red: life orange: healing yellow: sunlight green: nature turquoise: magic/art indigo/blue: serenity/harmony violet: spirit.Īfter the November 27, 1978, assassination of openly gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased. It flew in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. The original gay-pride flag was hand-dyed by Gilbert Baker.
