Words used to describe gay men are consistent in the pervasive use of words used first to demean women. By the 19th century, the word was used to describe prostitutes, primarily females, and the activities in which they engaged. It is derived from the French word gai, meaning “merry.” In the 17th century, ga i took on a second meaning, one associated with the self-indulgent, loose, and immoral life. The word “gay,” meaning “happy,” came into the English language at the end of the first millennium. Speaking of stealing, the gays didn't "steal" the word "gay" either. And, the Gay Pride Rainbow flag is one color short of thievery anyway, it is Roy G. The Chinese believe the rainbow is a slit in the sky that is sealed with stones of various colors. To the Hindus, the rainbow is the bow of the god of thunder and rain. The rainbow has symbolism and stories attached to it in many cultures. To the Irish, a leprechaun's gold is hidden at its end. Indigo and turquoise were both eliminated and changed to royal blue making the next and present version of the LGBT rainbow flag Roy G. This meant one of the remaining seven colors of Roy G. Roy G.Tiv, minus the tough-to-find hot pink, to be split into two sets of three with the equally balanced flags to be displayed along the parade route. The parade committee wanted the originally designed P. The surplus was used for the 1978 parade.Īfter Milk's assassination in late 1978, and with the increased anti-gay activism spurred on by Anita Bryant, the demand for the flag increased for the following years' parade. Biv flags made for the Order of Rainbow for Girls, a Masonic organization, that had never been picked up. However, the Paramount Flag Company did have a surplus on hand of Roy G. Unfortunately, mass quantities of hot pink fabric were not readily available to make the P Roy G. Wanting a large number of P Roy G Tiv flags to be reproduced, Baker approached his employers to get the task done. He hand-dyed the fabrics and stitched together eight panels of colored cloth each with a meaning: hot pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (the arts), indigo (peace and harmony), and violet (spirit) - P Roy G.
In 1978, Milk challenged Baker, by then working at the Paramount Flag Company, to come up with a new symbolic flag for the gay community to replace the pink triangle once used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals.īaker, both an artist and a seamster, took on the challenge of making a large flag. Three years later, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisor, making him the first openly gay person to hold an elected office in a major American city. In 1974, Baker met Harvey Milk in the early years of the activist's career. One of the first things he did was purchase a sewing machine so that he could copy the "fabulous" jumpsuits Mick Jagger and David Bowie wore. Baker also did drag and made his own costumes. When Baker was discharged from the Army in San Francisco, he decided to remain in the city. As he watched her sew, he knew he wanted to learn the skill, but in the 1950s and 1960s sewing was not a "boy" task. Gilbert Baker (1951-) was raised in Kansas where his grandmother owned a women's clothing store. We could easily remember the sequence of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, by a fictional man's name.Ī simple investigation of the rainbow flag symbolizing the LGBT social movement will reveal the colors are: red, orange, yellow, green, royal blue and violet, or Roy G. Bv, no indigo. The history of how the LGBT flag came into being may erase the notion of a mythological theft.
Every year around June when the majority of Gay Pride Events take place you'll apt hear, "We want God's rainbow back the gays stole it." Just as no one culture or group "owns" the rainbow, we'll see the gays did not "steal" the rainbow, and likewise, they did not steal the word "gay."