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Jim Parsons is an openly gay man who played the character Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon had a web show within the show called Fun with Flags where he analyzed the history and symbolism of various flags from Bavaria to Nebraska to Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets. But he did not cover the vexillology of the LGBTQ rainbow flag, so let’s have some fun.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: June 25, 1978--
A symbol of pride and social movements, the rainbow flag originated in San Francisco, making its first appearance at the city’s Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. It was designed by Gilbert Baker, a gay man and civil rights activist. He was tasked with making the flag by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California.
Prior to 1978, the symbol for the LGBTQ movement was an inverted pink triangle, but this had significant negative connotations, what with it being designed by fucking Nazis to identify and persecute homosexuals. Although reclaimed as a symbol of pride in the face of homophobia, Milk still wanted something uniquely their own.
One rumor proclaims Baker was inspired by Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz, as Garland was one of the first gay icons. Another hypothesis states he borrowed from the World Peace Association’s multicolored Flag of the Human Race.
Baker’s original design was eight-colored: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. The colors represented, respectively: sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic/art, serenity, spirit. Thirty volunteers hand-dyed and stitched two flags for the parade.
Five months later, Harvey Milk was assassinated; demand for the flag grew. Hot pink was dropped because of lack of availability of that fabric color. A year later, turquoise and indigo were merged into a single royal blue to make a six-stripe flag that remains most popular, although numerous other variations have sprung up over the years.
Thirty-seven years and one day later, the White House was illuminated in the colors of the rainbow flag to celebrate the federal legalization of gay marriage. And in June 2020, in what will go down as a historic decision, the Supreme Court of the United States voted 6-3 asserting federal law prevents employers from discriminating against workers for being LGBTQ.
History should take note that Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas voted on the side of bigotry.
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