If any color deserves pride of place on a gay pride flag, you’d think it would be hot pink.
That’s what the flag’s designer, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker, thought. In his original version of the now-iconic pennant, he not only gave top billing to hot pink, he assigned it — along with the other seven colors — a symbolic meaning: “sexuality.” (Talk about a leading role.)
But check out a contemporary rainbow flag in any of its multiple incarnations and you’ll see there’s no pink to be found. And no turquoise (“magic/art”) or indigo/blue (“serenity/harmony”) either.
What? The LGBT equality movement decided to trash sexuality and magic?
Nothing so fraught as that. The flag, which was introduced at San Fran’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in June of 1978, grew in popularity as a defiant statement of solidarity after the assassination later that year of Harvey Milk, and the dyes needed to stabilize the hot-pink hue were not plentiful enough to make mass production viable. The following year, SF discovered that when the flag was hung from city lampposts the turqouise stripe was obscured, so that color was discontinued, too. The upshot was the six-stripe version seen everywhere today, with indigo and turquoise melded into one sorta serene but not exactly magical royal blue.
But you can still catch a glimpse of Baker’s ideal. Thanks to a donation from St. Pete resident Michael Kilgore, an eight-stripe banner specially created for him by Baker is now on view through St. Pete Pride weekend at the LGBT Welcome Center in the Grand Central District.
Kilgore (not to be confused with the Michael Kilgore of Straz and Ulele fame) is the former editor of Key West gay newspaper Celebrate! In 2001, he says, “Key West decided to have the Pride to end all Prides,” and commissioned Baker to consider doing a “sea-to-sea” flag that would stretch from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. The artist accepted the offer, and seeing it as an opportunity to showcase his original color scheme — “he always hated” the six-stripe version, says Kilgore — he designed the 1.2-mile-long flag in the eight-stripe version, hot pink and all.
Following its Pride display, which required 5,000 bearers, the flag was cut up into 40-foot lengths and sent to Pride organizations all over the world. In addition, Baker thanked the Key West residents who facilitated the project with specially sewn and signed smaller versions. As a member of the steering committee, Kilgore received one of those flags, and that’s what he has donated to the Welcome Center.
“It’s a nice little blip in history,” he says. “And since it’s signed by Gilbert, who created the whole idea, I thought it’d be a nice thing for the Center to have.”
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2015.