The 6 colour rainbow flag is a symbol to represent the LGBTQI+ rights movement. It was designed by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, who was a openly gay man and drag queen. Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he used eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit). The flags were first made by hand, to be flown at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade on June 25, 1978. Due to issues for mass production, the pink and turquoise stripes were removed and indigo was replaced with basic blue, resulting in the six stripe flag that we are most familiar with. The various colors came to reflect both the broad diversity and the unity of the LGBTQI+ community.
Subsequently, groups within the wider LGBTQI+ community have designed individual flags to represent different sexualities and gender identities.
Aces LGBTQI+ training includes teaching about the many different communities under the LGBTQI+ umbrella
Find out more via the Diversity Speaking page
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