The six colours, of course, each have a meaning. For the next two years, the flag would have seven colours, until turquoise suffered the same fate, leaving us with the iconic six-colour design.
Due to increased demand for the flag and the high cost to produce hot pink fabric, the pink stripe was dropped.
The original design was first conceived in 1978, and had two more colours than the current design: pink (symbolising sexuality) and turquoise (symbolising magic and art). The original flag was made by artist and activist Gilbert Baker, after being proposed by Harvey Milk himself, who was keen to replace the (then often-used) pink triangle as the main symbol for the LBGT movement (due to its dark history as a former nazi symbol). But did you know that it wasn’t the original design? And that new flags are popping up all over the world? Members of the LGBTQIA+ community use all kinds of colours in all kinds of flags to create a variety of queer symbols. The six-colour rainbow flag will probably be the flag waved the most around the world during pride.
