about the colour bar

The first ever Gay Pride event was held in San Francisco in 1978.

Gilbert Baker, a local artist, designed a multicoloured flag with 8 coloured stripes in it so that the streets could be decorated with multiple flags, and the first flags were hand dyed and hand stitched by numerous volunteers.

The colours were chosen by Gilbert Baker for their significance, and they represented -

-------- hot pink -------- sex
-------- red -------- life
-------- orange -------- healing
-------- yellow -------- sunlight
-------- green -------- nature
-------- turquoise -------- magic / art
-------- indigo -------- serenity
-------- violet -------- spirit

The 8 coloured stripes started to become a worldwide symbol for the gay community, however as more and more people tried to replicate the 8 stripes in their own flags, it became clear that there just weren`t enough sources of the hot pink fabric commercially available, and the stripes were redesigned with 6 colours instead of 8, and this 6 coloured design is now used globally as a symbol of the gay community and now also the wider LGBT community.

The 6 coloured design uses the following colours, and on flags the stripes are horizontal, and the red portion is normally at the top -

There have been various other designs produced by both Gilbert Baker himself, as well as by various factions of the LGBT community, but they get little publicity and are not generally recognised - it is really only the 6 colour design that is recognised and known about the world over.

Gilbert Baker died in March 2017 and he always refused to apply for any kind of trademark for his design, he regarded it as his gift to the world.

Within the limits of display device colorimetry, the colour bar with 8 colour blocks at the bottom of most pages on this website is my web representation of the original 8 colour design of Gilbert Baker.

website design by ron-t

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