How Was The Rainbow Flag Created For Gay Pride?

   

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The rainbow flag serves as a global symbol of the LGBTQA community, but many do not know the origin story behind this iconic symbol. The month of June is the national celebration of Gay Pride and it’s time to celebrate.

The rainbow flag is traced back to the first San Francisco Freedom Day Parade in 1978 and was created by gay-rights activist Gilbert Baker. He attributes his inspiration from the famous Judy Garland song from The Wizard of Oz movie, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

The song became an iconic symbol for the gay liberation in the 1980s that was influenced from the Stonewall Inn Riots during the late 60s. Each color of the flag represents a specific meaning: red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), blue (serenity), and purple (spirit).

Last year the pride flag added additional colors to promote diversity in the community with a Philadelphia campaign, More Color More Pride. The flag added black and brown colors to create a more diverse community, accepting people of all races.

The downtown gay neighborhood of Philadelphia, called the Gayborhood, was experiencing situations of racial discrimination with discriminatory dress-code policies from local establishments. The new flag gained attention from major pride cities for a possibility of making this the new official pride flag.

This month now celebrates other sexual orientations including asexuality and queen or queer, giving more inclusion to other sexuality-preference groups. The additional inclusion of other groups proves that more are accepting and promoting the gay community. Check out the video above for more on Gay Pride and the LGBTQA community.

Author: Karli Wallace

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