See also:
California Gay Pride flag
image by Jim Ferrigan, 30 October 2002
One version of a gay flag based on the California state flag is shown above.
with food trucks, musical performances, local artists helming tables with their work, a family zone and more. Some examples of how it might have looked may be found at cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2012/06/05/proposition-8-marriage-equality-fight-headed-for-the-supreme-court#.UiMAkX_cDm0 and leftyliberal.com/lgbt-rights, but the red and purple stripes are shown narrower than the others, so the charges are not positioned where they ought to be on a complete rainbow flag.
However, in the 11 years the Paramount Flag Co. maintained a flag shop on Polk St., a gay Mecca, in San Francisco, we made a variety of variants of the California state flag for gay customers. Baker also removed the turquoise stripe to create an even number of stripes for display on each side of the streetlamps on Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day parade.
In 1979 the hot pink stripe was dropped due to the unavailability of flag fabric in this color. I thought of the emotional connection they hold.”
In April 2021, the GLBT Historical Society received an archival donation of an extraordinary, unique piece of history that we are unveiling during the Pride season: a fragment of one of the two monumental rainbow flags first raised on June 25, 1978 in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.
Displaying the original design’s eight colored stripes, it was created by Gilbert Baker and hand-stitched and dyed with the help of volunteers and friends, including Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran and Paul Langlotz.
One popular version, which we stocked, was to simply replace the star with an inverted triangle and to change the stripe to pink. Get your groove on at the Pride Nite dance party, watch Mickey and Minnie Mouse march during the Pride Cavalcade, and try a variety of fun themed eats.
Fresno Pride
This year, Fresno’s Rainbow Pride event takes place on June 7 from 10 a.m.
He’s currently the executive editor of Four Seasons magazine and is a former deputy editor of the Hollywood Reporter. Another version was the take a stock six striped rainbow flag and with the red stripe down, insert the California Bear, into the Rainbow field and then add a red star. Families can enjoy Fabulous Fables at the Santa Monica Pier, offering drag queen and king storytelling, face painting, and performances.
For museum information and tickets, click here.
Thankfully, in the bakery, I spotted a slice of rainbow cake, the perfect symbol for our modern family.
Looking back, I see the genius in Baker’s vision, that after years and years of persecution, a movement for equality could make room for joy and love in a panoply of expressions. [Note: this worked because the stripe on a 3'x5' state flag is the same width as the red stripe on the 3'x5' six-stripe rainbow, thus making it proportionally correct.] In both cases the flags could be fabricated from stock on hand to cut costs.
Other versions were fabricated upon request, but never stocked.
Jim Ferrigan, 30 October 2002
Pink stripe and triangle flag
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 1 September 2013
Six-striped flag
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 1 September 2013
This flag has the bear and star from the state flag on the rainbow field with red stripe at the bottom; no mention was made of the inscription, but as an integral part of the state flag, it was probably there, too.
Baker, whose choice was partly inspired by the fact that a rainbow, like same-sex attraction, is a natural phenomenon, later recalled, “It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant, like a bolt of lightning—that this was their flag.”
This article appears in Issue 30 of Alta Journal.
SUBSCRIBE
The flag’s full spectrum of colors, embodying the ideal of inclusiveness, has been debated over the years, with stripes added to some versions to be more representative of the broader queer experience.
A $5 festival pass at the gate grants you access to live music, more than 100 vendors of food and merchandise, a beer garden, a children’s play area and more.
Santa Ynez Valley Pride
Santa Ynez Valley is kicking off its fourth annual SYV Pride Month celebration with a parade and festival in Solvang on June 14. The official kickoff party is set for June 1 with a Sunday afternoon Tea Dance at Andaz Mercantile Terrace in downtown Napa.
In 1978, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk, just months before his assassination, asked local artist Gilbert Baker to design a powerful emblem to represent the burgeoning gay rights movement.
On June 25 of that year, Baker, cochair of the decorations committee for the city’s Gay Freedom Day celebration, revealed his creations: two 30-by-60-foot rainbow flags, flying at San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza.