GILBERT BAKER, an activist, artist and designer, created the gay-pride flag in 1978. He made its first prototype with the assistance of 30 volunteers, hand-dyeing it and piecing it together in the attic of the Gay Community Center in San Francisco, California. The flag, now used by queer movements around the world, made its debut at San Francisco’s annual pride parade on 25 June 1978.
Initially, the flag had eight differently coloured stripes, each symbolising something central to queer communities. Pink stood for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for peace and purple for spirit. The pink stripe was later removed, as it was too expensive to obtain fabric in that colour; and turquoise and blue were melded…