Rainbow flag
A rainbow flag is a multi-colored flag consisting mostly of stripes in the colors of the rainbow. There are several, unrelated rainbow flags in use today. The best known is probably the gay pride one. The peace flag is especially popular in Italy. There are also other, less well known rainbow flags.
Gay pride
| File:Rainbowflag.png Flag Aspect Ratio: 3:2 |
| File:Gay-flag-8.png Eight Striped (1978) |
| File:Gay-flag-7.png Seven Striped (1978-1979) |
| File:Gay-flag-6.png Six Striped (1979-present) (larger version) |
The rainbow flag, sometimes called the freedom flag, has been used as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride since the 1980s. The colors symbolize gay pride and gay rights. It originated in the United States, but is now used around the world.
The rainbow flag was first used to symbolize gay pride and diversity by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker; it currently consists of six colored stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. It is most commonly flown with the red stripe on top, as the colors appear in a natural rainbow.
History
There was some use of similar multi-colored flags in the USA in the early 1970s as a symbol of internationalism and unity of all people of earth, but by the end of the 1970s the rainbow flag's connection with gay pride became generally known in the United States.
The original gay pride flag was hand-dyed by Baker, and consisted of eight stripes of hot-pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. Baker assigned specific meaning to each of the colors as follows:
- hot pink, for sex
- red, for life
- orange, for healing
- yellow, for sun
- green, for nature
- turquoise, for art
- indigo, for harmony
- violet, for spirit
After the 1978 assassination of openly gay City Supervisor Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased. To meet demand, the Paramount Flag Company began selling a version of the flag using stock rainbow fabric consisting of seven stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he too dropped the hot-pink stripe due to the unavailability of hot-pink fabric.
In 1979, the flag was modified for a final time. When hung vertically from the lamp posts of San Francisco's Market Street, the center stripe was obscured by the post itself. 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. At the same time, the indigo stripe was replaced with a blue stripe, which resulted in the current six stripe version of the flag.
In 1989, the rainbow flag came to nationwide attention in America after John Stout sued his landlords and won when they attempted to prohibit him from displaying the flag from his West Hollywood, California apartment balcony.
Variations
Many variations of the rainbow flag have been used. Some of the more common ones include a Greek letter λ (lambda) in white in the middle of the flag and a pink or black triangle in the upper left corner. The rainbow colors have also often been used in gay alterations of national and regional flags.
Rainbow colors as symbol of gay pride
The basic rainbow flag has spawned innumerable variations. One common item of jewelry is the pride necklace or freedom rings, consisting of six rings, one of each colour, on a chain. Other variants range from key chains to candles.
In Montreal, Beaudry metro station, which serves as that city's gay village, was recently rebuilt with rainbow-coloured elements integrated into its design.
See also
Peace movement
This rainbow flag originated in Italy. It was first used in a peace march in 1961 and was inspired by similar multi-colored flags used in demonstrations against nuclear weapons. It became popular with the 'Peace from every balcony' campaign in 2002, started as a protest against the impending war in Iraq. The most common variety has seven colors, purple, blue, azure (the Italian national color), green, yellow, orange and red, and is emblazoned in bold with the Italian word PACE, meaning "peace". Common variations include moving the purple stripe down below the azure one, and adding a white stripe on top (the original flag from the 60s had a white stripe on top). This flag has been adopted internationally as a symbol of the peace movement.
Others
Cooperative movement
A six-color rainbow flag is also a common symbol of the Cooperative movement.
Tawantinsuyu
A flag with a seven-striped rainbow design is used in Peru to represent Tawantinsuyu, the Pre-Columbian Inca empire.
Druze
A rainbow flag is also used by some Druze communities in the Middle-east.