![]() While gay activists had reclaimed the pink triangle used by Nazis to target homosexuals, Baker and his compatriots wanted a new, optimistic icon. ![]() In Andy Campbell’s essential book Queer x Design, the historian writes that the Vietnam vet and marijuana activist Gilbert Baker “was asked by San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk to design a new flag for the upcoming Gay Freedom Day celebrations,” in 1978. In celebration of Pride Month, we spoke with three experts in visual culture to take a look back at the origins and evolution of the queer community’s unmistakable signifier, and what it means to raise the flag today, tomorrow, and for all eternity. They planted a seed that blooms, to this day, in flag varieties well into the thousands, engaging with the mainstream and embodying complexity just like the LGBTQ+ community it proudly signifies. Its mutability is by design: Originally eight stripes (with optional circles of stars), the creation was offered by artist Gilbert Baker and his collaborators without trademark or copyright. ![]() Whether wrapping an ad campaign or flapping from a pole, hoisted at a protest or hated on by bigots, the rainbow flag is one of the most potent symbols of the last 50 years.
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