Over the years brands have increasingly used Pride Month as a marketing strategy, including sponsoring pride events, using the symbol for pride in their merchandise and design content for store fronts, Facebook pages and company websites. One negative impact of Gilbert Baker allowing his flag to be used by everyone, is the commercialization of pride, the pride flag symbol and the corporatization of what pride means. Today, the rainbow pride flag is used much differently. Originally, the flag represented systemic oppression and struggle with people protesting for their human rights. Use of the pride flag has significantly evolved since its creation. While there has been significant advancement and change to create further representation, the current flag has six colours and is recognized worldwide as a symbol for the LGBT+ community. Other minority representative flags include the pansexual, transgender, asexual and the agender community flags. In 1998, the famous pink, blue and purple bisexual pride flag was created for the bisexual community to proclaim power and visibility for acceptance, both within the LGBT community and in society. Since the origination of the first pride flag, various minority representative communities within the larger LGBT community have created their own flags. The new eight-coloured flag, has been adopted in some areas but is not widely used.
2017 brought controversial change to the flag adding two stripes black and brown to encourage more acceptance from both inside and outside the community, for representation for people of colour. After Milk’s assassination when the flag went into wide production, the flag was redesigned for practicality the hot pink section was dropped as the colour pigment was not readily available, while the turquoise section was dropped to create a symmetrical image when flown from balconies and banners. Originally, the representative flag was eight colours, all of which had an assigned meaning hot pink represented sex, while turquoise symbolized magic or art. Representation and celebration through use of the pride flag symbol strongly aligned with his values as he believed, “flags are about proclaiming power.” After the aforementioned systemic Nazism symbol for gay people, the use of the symbolic pride flag reclaims the power from the historical oppressor for the LGBT+ community to proclaim the power and unity over their pride. Subsequently, his choice to allow open access to the flag rather than copyright its use, has allowed for the symbol to be representative power for all.
He believed that after systemic oppression and hate crime, the community, “needed something that was positive, that celebrated our love.” His vision dictated that the flag did not belong to him as it was owned by everyone who identified with it. To commemorate Milk’s contribution to the LGBT rights movement, the LGBT community adopted the rainbow pride flag.īaker’s philosophy was using colour as a symbol for unity and acceptance within the LGBT community. A few short months later, Milk was assassinated. A young gay designer Gilbert Baker created the first LGBT rainbow pride flag for $1000 for use in the June 1978 pride events by Harvey Milk, a LGBT rights activist. The pride flag was developed because of a quintessential need for a symbol representation in the community for use in pride parades, marches and protests. The first LGBT pride march was held in 1970, a year after the riots at Stonewall, to continue to protest for LGBT rights, and celebrate pride through unity and acceptance. Riots at Stonewall Inn in June 1969 are considered by many to be the grassroots of LGBT pride, a defiance against a system and its leaders, which were anti-LGBT. Though a positive symbol of pride was much needed to celebrate identity for the war atrocities, another catalyst for a need for the pride flag was the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. Automatically, the symbol demonstrated that any gay individual was, “the lowest of the low in the camp hierarchy.”Ĭreation of a pride flag demonstrated an act of defiance against the institutionalized oppression that had continued to occur at the conclusion of World War 2. Adolf Hitler adopted the use of pink triangles in the uniforms worn by concentration camp prisoners as a symbol to identify the gay community. A catalyst for the expansion of pride parades was the creation of the symbolic LGBT+ pride flag.Ĭlassification of queer people occurred throughout World War 2 by Nazi Germany. Symbols revolutionize social and political movements and celebrate a collective unity, community and history.