When hung vertically from the lamp posts of San Francisco’s Market Street, the center stripe was obscured by the post itself. began selling a surplus stock of Rainbow Girls flags from its retail store on the southwest corner of Polk and Post, at which Gilbert Baker was an employee.
Also, San Francisco-based Paramount Flag Co. As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he too dropped the hot pink stripe because of the unavailability of hot-pink fabric. To meet demand, the Paramount Flag Company began selling a version of the flag using stock rainbow fabric with seven stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet.
Baker later revealed that he was urged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S. Popular since 1979.Īfter the assassination of gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk on November 27, 1978, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased. It goes back to 1978, when the artist Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man and a drag queen, designed the first rainbow flag.
