Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Pride Events in the United States (including marches, parades, festivals, rallies, and other events) commemorate the Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Riots were the first time that gays (specifically, gay men and women, drag queens, and street people) fought back physically against police harassment and entrapment.

Up until the late 1960's, routine raids of New York City's gay and lesbian bars were frequent -- with same-sex couples being routinely arrested for dancing together, kissing or showing other signs of affection. Individuals were also arrested for wearing clothing of the opposite sex - considered "unlawful" by the police. The Stonewall Riots (named after the Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village gay bar outside of which they took place) occurred on June 27, 28, and 29, 1969. The riots were three nights of violent street protests and arrests involving over 300 gay people who finally grew tired of all the verbal slurs, unfounded arrests and beatings the police had subjected them to.

The Stonewall Riots have since been credited with sparking the modern queer liberation movement throughout the world. .

What is the significance of the Rainbow Flag?

The Rainbow Flag is an international symbol of Gay and Lesbian Pride. The flag was conceived by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco resident, who made the first one by hand. He then had copies of the flag made, which were first flown at San Francisco's Pride events in 1978. The flag (with its 6 horizontal stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) represents the diversity, yet unity, of the gay and lesbian community.

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Gilbert Baker Bio and History of the Rainbow Flag

By Gilbert Baker for Rainbow25

Gilbert Baker, known as the gay Betsy Ross, is the creator of the Rainbow Flag.  He designed the flag in San Francisco in 1978 as a positive alternative to the Pink Triangle -- a symbol first used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals.

Baker, born in Kansas in 1951, arrived in San Francisco as an Army draftee in 1970.  Like Dorothy in Oz, he found himself in a different and more colorful world. He dreamt of being an artist and, at the same time, fell in love with drag.  He quickly learned to sew in order to create the costumes he couldn't afford to buy. 

He came out of the closet in 1971 and received an Honorable Discharge from the Army in 1972.  In 1975, he met activist and budding politico Harvey Milk, whom Baker credits with getting him involved in gay activism and with changing his life.  Milk was elected as San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor on November 7, 1977.

Throughout the early 70's, Baker was known to work day and night sewing banners and creating bold visuals for gay protests and marches.  When actress Anita Bryant publicly labeled all gay men child molesters in 1977, Harvey Milk convinced Baker to create a symbol that would call the gay movement to action.

  Baker immediately got to work on the project, and, in the spirit of Betsy Ross, Baker hand-sewed and dyed the strips of fabric that would later become the Rainbow Flag.  The original Rainbow Flag had eight stripes:  fuchsia; red; orange; yellow; green; turquoise; blue; and, purple -- which represent sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic serenity and spirit.

  The Rainbow Flag first flew during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. Two eight-color Rainbow Flags, each measuring 30 feet by 60 feet, flew from the flagpoles at United Nations Plaza.

  In the wake of Harvey Milk's tragic assassination later that year (November 1978), Baker was moved to create a flag display for San Francisco's Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade.  When he discovered there was no fuchsia fabric readily available from commercial flag makers (he was creating far too many flags for the fabric to be hand-dyed), he simplified the Rainbow Flag by eliminating fuchsia and then turquoise in order to keep the flag design evenly balanced. The six-color flag gained popularity steadily.  Baker then began working with the Paramount Flag Company in San Francisco to produce the first commercial Rainbow Flags in six colors.

  Baker began designing flags for other events including State visits to San Francisco by: the President of Italy; the President of France; the Premier of China; the President of the Philippines; the President of Venezuela; and, the King of Spain. He designed flags for the 1984 Democratic National Convention, the 1985 Super Bowl, San Francisco Symphony Black and White Balls and stage and street decorations for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parades from 1979 through 1993.  In 1994 Baker created the history making mile-long Rainbow Flag for Stonewall 25 in New York to mark the 25^th anniversary of the gay civil rights movement.  The Guinness Book of World Records recognized the mile-long Stonewall 25 Rainbow Flag as the world's largest flag.

  Baker has mounted exhibitions illustrating the history of the flag for World Pride Rome in 2000 and in 2002 he brought his exhibition to the New York City LGBT Community Center. This year his work and historical collections are being presented in two San Francisco exhibits at the LGBT Center and the Hormel Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.

Currently, Baker is sewing the world's longest Rainbow Flag -- restored to its original eight colors -- to celebrate the Flag's Silver Anniversary: Rainbow25 presented by ABSOLUT VODKA (www.rainbow25.org). The Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag -- a mile-and-a-quarter long -- will be unfurled in Key West, Florida on June 15, 2003.  Parts of the Flag will then be shared with more than 100 cities around the world.

Gilbert Baker lives in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

Pride One of Broward County, Inc