What Does Rainbow Symbolize in LGBT

June is almost over, but the events and rights marches planned for #PrideMonth, a month linked to the celebration of Gay Pride, continue. 

The top protagonist of all this period - but not only - is the colorful rainbow flag which for (many) years has been the official banner of the LGBT + community.

We have seen, used, defended it, but are we sure we really know it? 

Her story is eventful, complex and revolutionary. 

First thing first, June 28 is the day chosen for the official celebration of Gay Pride to commemorate the Stonewall riots - which broke out on the night of June 28, 1969 - when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York, starting a series of violent clashes. 

From that moment the modern gay liberation movement was officially born, the one that has fought so many struggles and continues to fight for the recognition of its civil rights.

How the rainbow flag is born

People started talking about the flag in 1978, when Harvey Milk - the supervisor (aka city councilor) of San Francisco and the first openly gay man elected as a public official in California - asked gay artist and activist Gilbert Baker to create an emblem that would represent the queer community. 

Both Milk and Baker wanted to replace the previously used pink triangle because it resembled the one the Nazis used to identify homosexuals.

Baker decided to create something that - by contrast - smacked of freedom. So he decided to take inspiration from the American and French revolutions and also to experiment with the symbolism of rupture typical of the queer community.

In his memoirs he says: "As a community, both local and international, the gay one was in the midst of an upheaval, a battle for equal rights, a change of status in which it now demanded power, taking it. 

This was our revolution. : a tribal, individualistic and collective vision. It deserved a new symbol. "And he decided to create a flag because" flags speak of power, they say something. Put a rainbow flag on the windshield and you're saying something. "

All meanings of the rainbow flag

The original flag created by Baker had eight colored stripes, but over time it has undergone many mutations: too complicated and expensive to find and print all the expected colors on fabric, so it was immediately modified. 

Today we normally use the 1979 version, which is the one with six stripes.

The curiosity is that each of these strips has a precise meaning. That's right: according to Baker's view:

•     red represents life,
•     orange healing,
•     yellow the sunlight,
•     green nature,
•     blue harmony,
•     purple the spirit.

The first variant also included the colors pink - which represents sex - and turquoise - which symbolizes magic. "I like to think of those elements as part of each person. 

We all have them in common," said Baker.

The most famous variants

Versatile and loaded with meaning, the rainbow flag has many variations used to represent various subgroups of the queer community. 

In Philadelphia, in 2017, the one with black and brown stripes was introduced, a symbol of the marginalized LGBTQ community of color.

Always striped, but with very different colors, we find the flag of transgender pride (blue, pink and white), that of bisexual pride (pink, purple and blue), the one that represents all gender fluids (pink, white, purple, black and blue), but also that which represents asexual pride (black, gray, white, purple).