In an article called “Decolonising the Rainbow Flag” by Pia Laskar, Anna Johansson and Diana Mulinari, the authors convey “To hoist the rainbow flag on official flagpoles should therefore be an important symbolic act showing that the municipality stood openly behind the rights of all LGBT individuals” (Laskar 197.) Flying or putting up the gay pride flag shows the LGBT community that they are accepted, welcome, safe and even celebrated wherever the flag is being hung or flown.
While LGBT individuals do face discrimination when it comes to the pride flag being flown, there are a plethora of positive aspects that LGBT individuals experience when the flag is flown. Baker created the flag knowing that not everyone would respect it, but he knew that the LGBT community needed a symbol and something to celebrate their hardships. Some people even think that pride flags are unnecessary in the first place and that being gay is not something you need to be proud of. Some people think that just because LGBT people are not treated as badly today as in the past that pride flags do not need to be flown. Charles Spingola, a street preacher, and Toni Peters, the daughter of a Baptist minister, tore down and burned the flag, for which both were convicted of criminal damaging” (Rapp 2.) Even today the flag being flown causes controversy, which was not all Gilbert Baker’s intention. In the same month, a rainbow flag was displayed on the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, in conjunction with a gay pride march. Mariano, who called the complainant's remarks "the most obvious example of hate and bigotry" that he had heard in almost two decades on the council, and all the other councilors decided to keep the flag aloft. The display in Worcester drew a citizen complaint at a city council meeting.
In June, 1999, for example, it was raised at city halls in San Francisco and Worcester, Massachusetts. Rapp provides examples of this in her article when she states “The rainbow flag has sometimes been flown at government buildings. The gay pride flag being flown in certain places has always caused controversy, typically among religious people and conservatives. The brown stripes represent the issues that LGBT people of color deal with inside and outside of the LGBT community. Occasionally, you will even see a brown stripe on some pride flags. His suggestion, however, has not been widely adopted” (Rapp 1.) Every once in a while you will see a black stripe on a pride flag. He intended that the black stripes should be removed from the flags and burned when a cure for AIDS is found. In another part of “Rainbow Flag,” Rapp talks about how “AIDS activist Leonard Matlovich proposed adding a black stripe to the bottom of the flag to symbolize the AIDS crisis. Before commercial production began, lack of availability of materials and cost considerations caused a change in the design of the flag” (Rapp 1.) Gilbert Baker’s creation had spread like wildfire amongst the LGBT community, causing him to become one of the most influential LGBT individuals.Ī subject that has widely surrounded the LGBT community for decades is the AIDS crisis. The Paramount Flag Company of San Francisco undertook the job in 1979.
Rapp explains this when she says, “Demand for rainbow flags made it necessary to find a source of mass production. The colors had been taken out due to lack of materials and production purpose after the flag had started being mass produced. Hot pink stood for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit” (Rapp 1.) Today’s pride flag does not have pink or turquoise and indigo has been replaced with blue. In an article called “Rainbow Flag” by Linda Rapp, she states “In Gilbert's original design, each of the eight colors represented a concept. The pride flag originally had eight colors, while today’s version that you would see anywhere only has six. Gilbert unfortunately passed away at age 65 on Maleaving behind a legacy and a flag that is now incredibly meaningful to the LGBT community. The flag ended up being 30圆0 feet (Prisco 1.) The flag was first flown at the United Nations Plaza for Gay Pride Day in San Francisco on June 25th 1978. Baker was an openly gay artist and activist (Prisco 1.) When Baker was 27 years old, he had sewed the first gay pride flag by hand. The original gay pride flag was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978.
The final LGBT artifact that I would like to discuss is the first LGBT pride flag.