The Bear Brotherhood pride flag was meant to represent the bear subculture within the wider LGBTQ+ community.
Hot pink was thus dropped from the flag in November 1978. Demand for the rainbow pride flag soared, but flag makers at that time had difficulty getting hot pink fabric. In November 1978, Harvey Milk was assassinated by a former supervisor, and became an icon of gay martyrship overnight. This 6-coloured rainbow pride flag is the version that was adopted into emoji form in 2016: ?️? This is probably the most common LGBTQ+ rainbow pride flag you’ll see these days. Inspired by Judy Garland’s “Over the rainbow”, Baker designed the first rainbow pride flag, which included 8 colours. Harvey Milk, then city supervisor of San Francisco, challenged Gilbert Baker to create a new flag for the gay community.
However, by the 1970s (30 years after the war ended), many felt that the pink triangle reminded them of a dark age, and wanted something that could represent the dawn of a new age. Gilbert Baker designed the OG rainbow pride flag in 1978.īefore that, the pink triangle was used as a symbol for the gay community, due to its use by the Nazis during WWII to identify and stigmatise gay people. Original Gilbert Baker rainbow pride flag (8 colours)