Gay Pride

The modern pride movement began after the Stonewall riots in 1959. Each year a parade was held to commemorate the anniversary of the riots. Now parades and festivals are held all over the world to celebrate gay pride. From the late 1970's it became common to see a rainbow striped flag flying during parades and over events. The flag originated in California and was designed by an artist called Gilbert Baker living in San Francisco in 1978. The original flags were hand stitched by Gilbert and thirty volunteers. This first design had eight stripes and each colour had a meaning assigned to it;

Hot pink - sexuality

Red - life

orange - Healing

yellow - Sunlight

Green - Nature

Turquoise - magic/art

Indigo - serenity/harmony

Violet - spirt

The hot pink stripe was dropped from the design due to the difficulty in obtaining the fabric. In 1979 the turquoise was also removed from the design because when the flag was hung the centre stripe would be obscured by the post. To avoid this the flag design became the six striped version still used today. 

Bisexual Pride