The history of the rainbow flag

Two days ago, I visited Amsterdam for the exhibitions at the Hart Museum. On the way, I saw many rainbow flags in all colors, from the first to the latest flag design. This has to do with the Canal Parade, where tens of thousands of people (including tourists) will be standing along the canals on Saturday, August 2nd. I wondered about the history of the rainbow flags and the different versions. Did you too?

rainbow flag

A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of stripes with the colors of the rainbow. The rainbow has seven colors, but the colors in these flags range from six to eight solid stripes. Rainbow flags have been and are used throughout the centuries by very diverse groups and regions spread across the entire world. The best-known rainbow flags are those of the gay rights movement and the peace movement.

 

Peace movement At the beginning of the twentieth century, the American clergyman James William van Kirk (1858–1946) designed a rainbow flag intended to symbolize international world peace: a homemade blue silk flag displayed rainbow-colored stripes (red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, violet), stars, and the planet Earth. He presented this world peace flag to many monarchs, presidents, and politicians in the United States and Western Europe. In 1913, he came to The Hague and presented his flag to Andrew Carnegie at the opening of the Peace Palace. In 1929, James van Kirk also toured Europe with his world peace flag. The flag has been preserved in a number of museums.

In Italy, a rainbow-colored peace flag was first used in a peace parade in 1961. The design was inspired by similar multicolored flags used at demonstrations against nuclear weapons. The flag consists of the same colors as the rainbow, namely seven stripes in the colors violet, blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, and red. In the center was the word 'pace', Italian for 'peace'. It has been explained as follows: “In the story of the Great Flood, God instituted the rainbow to seal the covenant with man and nature, with the promise that there would never be another flood. The rainbow thus became a symbol of Peace over the earth and the heavens, and, by extension, among all people.” Furthermore, the number seven symbolizes fullness in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This is the reverse order and a different number of stripes compared to the flag of the gay rights movement. Originally, a dove drawn by Pablo Picasso stood instead of the word PACE. This flag gained widespread recognition during the protests against the war in Iraq in 2003. A campaign to promote this peace flag was also launched in the Netherlands in early 2005.

  Gay movement Since the late 1970s, a rainbow flag has served as a symbol of the gay movement, and since then it has been carried at Gay Pride Parades, among other events, and displayed at gay bars and numerous other gatherings of gays, lesbians, and related sexual minorities. This rainbow flag was designed in June 1978 by the American artist Gilbert Baker from San Francisco as a symbol for that year's Gay Pride Parade. Before that, the pink triangle it is the symbol of the gay movement, but there was opposition because it is a reference to the oppression during Nazism. The flag was intended to be a sign of lesbian and gay pride and, at the same time, represent the diversity of this lifestyle. Baker was reportedly inspired for the design of the rainbow flag by the Flag of the Human Race, which was used by some to demonstrate for world peace in the 1960s and consisted of five stripes in the colors red, black, brown, yellow, and white.

The eight stripes of Gilbert Baker's original rainbow flag had the following symbolic meaning:

• pink – sex
• red – life
• orange – medicinal properties
• yellow – sunlight
• green – nature
• turquoise – magic
• blue – calmness
• violet – spirit

The first time this flag was used was during the Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco on June 25, 1978. The very first two rainbow flags were hand-dyed and sewn together by 30 volunteers. After on November 27, 1978 Harvey Milk, an openly gay member of the San Francisco City Council, was murdered, there was a great demand for the rainbow flag. However, when the Paramount Flag Company, where Gilbert Baker would work for many years, wanted to produce a flag in the aforementioned eight colors, it turned out that the color pink in question could not be manufactured. As a result, the pink stripe was omitted from the second version of this flag. Subsequently, in 1979, when the flag was flown vertically, it became apparent that the middle stripe disappeared behind the flagpole, after which it was decided to omit the turquoise stripe. Since then, the rainbow flag of the gay community has consisted of six stripes. There are various variations of this rainbow flag. Some of the more common versions feature a white Greek letter. lambda (?) iin the center and/or a black or pink triangle in the upper left corner. A black stripe is also sometimes added in memory of AIDS victims. National flags are also sometimes combined with the rainbow flag or rendered in rainbow colors.   Philadelphia Pride flag (2017) In June 2017, a flag with two extra colors was hoisted at City Hall in the American city of Philadelphia on the occasion of Pride Month: a black and a brown stripe were added above the red stripe. With this, Philadelphia wanted to draw attention to people of color within the LGBT community.

  Progress Pride flag (2018) A year later, in June 2018, American graphic designer Daniel Quasar published a rainbow flag featuring the black and brown colors from the Philadelphia flag and the light blue, pink, and white colors from the Trans Pride flag in a triangle on the hoist side of the flag. This rainbow flag is known as the Progress variant and gained worldwide attention via social media. Partly in response to the many Black Lives Matter protests, various LGBT organizations began using the new Progress flag in 2020. In the Netherlands, these include Pride Amsterdam, Rotterdam Pride, and the online queer magazine Expreszo. While some are pleased with the added triangle with extra colors, others prefer the 'traditional' rainbow flag with six colors. Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag (2021) In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti, a British activist, artist, and founder of Intersex Equality Rights UK, replaced the white triangle in the Progress Pride flag with a yellow triangle featuring the purple circle from the flag of the intersex movement. With this, all aspects of the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 are incorporated into this flag, namely sexual preference, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics, also abbreviated as SOGIESC.  

Rainbow and the weather

A rainbow is a colored, sometimes incomplete, semicircular arc that can be observed in the sky when the (low-lying) sun shines on a mist of water droplets and the sun is behind the observer. It is an optical effect caused by the refraction and reflection of light within the water droplets. A rainbow derives its name from its appearance during rain, but one can also see a rainbow in a cloud of water droplets from a waterfall, garden hose, or fountain, and sometimes above the surf at sea. From an airplane or a mountaintop, a rainbow can be visible as a circle (see Circular rainbow below) when there is no horizon in the way. The light is reflected and refracted into a spectrum of primary colors, which blend into one another. The center of the arc is positioned directly opposite the sun as seen from the observer, and is therefore always below the horizon. The observer and the arc together form an imaginary cone, with the observer at the apex of the cone and the rainbow along the edge of the cone's base. Within the cone, the arc has a semi-apex angle of approximately 42 degrees; the width of the color band from red to violet is approximately 2 degrees. The colors of the rainbow are traditionally named as (from outside to inside): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The order can be remembered as ROGGBIV. Naturally, in reality, there is a continuous distribution of colors that blend seamlessly into one another and are not sharply distinguishable.  

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Pride Amsterdam 2025: https://pride.amsterdam/