!! OMG, flying high: The rainbow flag !!

Ever wonder why the rainbow flag became the international symbol for the LGBTQ community? So did The New York Times. The paper found that the first person to appropriate the rainbow for ‘mos was Artist Gilbert Baker of San Francisco. The article reports that “Baker’s original, self-made flag was composed of eight stripes: hot pink (for sexuality), red (for life), orange (for healing), yellow (for sunlight), green (for nature), blue (for art), indigo (for harmony) and violet (for the human spirit). When Baker first attempted to commercially produce the flag, hot pink wasn’t readily available, so the flag was reduced to seven colors. The following year, for a parade in protest of the assassination of Harvey Milk, the flag was changed to be only six colors (dropping the indigo stripe), so that it could be split in half and evenly line two sides of the street while the parade marched through. This six-stripe flag has persevered since then, the only change being its increased popularity.”