Gay pride month facts
The missing turquoise honors Native Americans and the magic of life. Moreover, when we lost the pink, we lost the symbol for our sexual liberation. First, it is simply more beautiful and more authentic. It’s time, however, to restore the original design. "We lost two of the original colors, pink and turquoise. The flagmaker reintroduced pink and turquoise for a flag at the 2004 Key West Pride Festival. Baker eventually brought the other colors back Then, after Harvey Milk’s assassination, activists dropped turquoise, in order to march with the flag in even number: Three on one side of the street, three on the other.ħ. Once the flags hit mass-production status, the hot pink color was difficult to reproduce affordably. Related | Oregon Refuses To Hand Over Data On Marijuana Users To Feds The eight stripes of the original flag represented individual components of the gay community, according to Gay Pride New Orleans: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for the arts, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. Hand-dyed versions of Baker’s creation were first used at the 1978 Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day March in San Francisco. The 1999 book Queer Sites: Gay Urban Histories Since 1600 suggests that the influence of Judy Garland’s then-popular song “Over the Rainbow,” and her celebrity status as a gay ally, wouldn’t have been far from Baker’s mind during the making of the flag.
A different humanitarian design inspired the flagīaker was inspired by the five-striped “Flag of the Races,” which is red, black, brown, yellow and white, according to the Carleton Sexuality and Gender Center. Related | A Drag Queen’s Visit To The Cannabis StoreĢ. Because I knew right then that this was the most important thing I would ever do – that my whole life was going to be about the Rainbow Flag.” It was the most thrilling moment of my life.
It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant like a bolt of lightening – that this was their flag. Raising it up and seeing it there blowing in the wind for everyone to see. “It all goes back to the first moment of the first flag back in 1978 for me. Baker quickly realized he wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Gay rights activist and first openly gay politician Harvey Milk challenged him to create a symbol the community could rally behind. After being discharged, he stayed in SF and sewed clothing. In the 1970s, a young man named Gilbert Baker arrived in San Fransisco from Kansas. His creation, however, will live on for generations to come. In celebration of the eight stripes of his original flag design, check out these eight facts about Baker’s creation of the rainbow pride flag. The man behind the ubiquitous rainbow gay pride flag died last month at 65, peacefully, in his home. This article originally appeared on The Fresh Toast