Original 8-Stripe Pride Flag

History

The eight-stripe version is the flag exactly as Gilbert Baker first stitched it for the 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Baker dyed fabric by hand with volunteers at the Gay Community Center and later the Paramount Flag Company. Hot pink was removed almost immediately because commercial fabric suppliers did not stock it. Turquoise and indigo were later merged into royal blue, leaving the familiar six-stripe flag. The original eight-stripe design remained obscure until the late 2000s, when archivists and Baker himself began promoting it as the authentic source flag. It is now produced commercially and displayed in museums, including as part of permanent collections at the MoMA in New York and the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.

Colors

hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, violet

Baker's full original palette: hot pink = sexuality, red = life, orange = healing, yellow = sunlight, green = nature, turquoise = magic/art, indigo = serenity, violet = spirit.

Symbols

eight-stripe rainbow

The two additional stripes relative to the later six-stripe version restore Baker's complete symbolic vocabulary.