They love the rainbow.” But, in his 2019 memoir, Gilbert Baker claimed the idea for a rainbow design came to him from the “swirl of color and light” he experience on the dance floor one night at the Winterland Ballroom. In a 2018 Los Angeles Times interview, Segerblom recalled, “I wanted to make an American flag that was rainbow because I think it’s for everybody…My idea was just - color. The origins of the flags’ design are somewhat contested. Segerblom was an artist with skill dyeing fabrics McNamara was a clothing designer with sewing skills and Baker was a seamster and self-described drag queen who often appeared at protests and celebrations in hand-sewn dresses.
Aided by friends and volunteers, three members of that committee were central to the first flags’ creation: Lynn Segerblom, James McNamara, and Gilbert Baker. The first rainbow Pride flags were created by the decorations committee of San Francisco’s 1978 Gay Freedom Day Planning Committee. This feature allowed the flag to be claimed as a symbol by a wide range of people - as it has been.
O ne of the beauties of the original rainbow Pride flag was that each colored stripe represented an abstract concept, not a specific racial, ethnic, gender, or sexual identity. Pride flag in Pride parade, Chicago, IL (USA). And, on closer analysis, I came to understand them as narrow statements of identity politics that invite the very kinds of division they claim to remedy. Nevertheless, my initial reaction to both new flags was similar: they’re flagrantly disrespectful of an historic symbol of LGBTQ+ people, pride, and community. They respond to real, enduring problems and deserve to be taken seriously and considered on their merits. Unlike the original rainbow Pride flag, Quasar’s flag is not in the public domain.īoth proposals for new pride flags are well-intended: a desire to create an inclusive visual symbol of the diverse LGBTQ+ community and raise awareness of those still marginalized within that community and the wider society.
Quasar has since commercialized that design, selling a range of products featuring the Progress flag and licensing it to other manufacturers. Quasar’s design has attracted a lot of buzz and a Kickstarter campaign to mass-produce the new flag raised almost twice as much as the original $14,000 goal. Xe (Quasar uses xe/xem pronouns) said the black stripe also represented, “ those living with AIDS, those no longer living, and the stigma surrounding them….” A PRIDE Flag Reboot.” CC (BY-NC-SA) license.