Gilbert Baker

“We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that.”
- Gilbert Baker

I remember it was a sunny summer weekend in conservative Utah, USA, in 2019, and how the colours shined with the smiles all around me. It was as if everyone’s flags, headbands, and face paint brought a ray of light and a message of hope to one another. A message that later reassured me and made me oddly comfortable while in the middle of busy 200 South in Salt Lake City.
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Look around during any Pride month, and it’s everywhere. It’s painted on crosswalks, flying outside city halls, pinned to denim jackets, and (inevitably) slapped onto every corporate float in sight during your festivals. But before the rainbow flag became a global, ubiquitous symbol of LGBTQ+ pride, it was just an idea and a massive, dye-soaked mess in a San Francisco attic.

The mastermind behind this beautiful mess was Gilbert Baker.
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To understand why Baker’s creation was such a game-changer, we have to rewind to 1978. At the time, the modern gay rights movement was still in its noisy, radical infancy. The community’s most prominent symbol was the pink triangle. Sure, reclaiming it was a powerful act of defiance, but it was a heavy burden, a traumatizing reminder for many. Harvey Milk, the legendary trailblazer, realized the community needed an emblem that didn't come with a side of historical
trauma. They needed a symbol of dawn, not destruction. Something joyful. Something hopeful.

Enter Gilbert. Baker settled in San Francisco, where he practically collided with the city's vibrant, glittering queer scene. He taught himself to sew (primarily so he could create fabulous drag outfits) and quickly became the go-to banner maker for local anti-war and gay-rights protests, your marketing girly if you may. When Milk challenged him to design a new emblem for the upcoming 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade, Baker knew exactly what to do.
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He drew inspiration from the sky. We needed something that was beautiful, something from us, for us. The rainbow was a natural fit: a vibrant, visible spectrum reflecting the immense diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and how they intertwine and work together in tandem.

Baker, with volunteers, spent days handling large cotton strips, hauling natural dye cans, and running a sewing machine at a community center attic. The original flag boasted eight meaningfully colored stripes: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for serenity, and violet for spirit. When raised, the crowd’s reaction was electric.

Perhaps Baker’s greatest accomplishment, however, wasn't just creating the flag; it was giving it away. He flat-out refused to trademark the design, insisting that it belonged to us. To continue this message of self-expression and acceptance.

Gilbert Baker passed away in 2017, but his legacy is quite literally woven into the fabric of queer culture. In a world that often tried to force LGBTQ+ people into the shadows, Baker gave us a symbol that demands to be seen in full, brilliant colour. And that, back in 2019, was exactly what I felt by seeing all the colours on that sunny day in Utah.