ReCall: History of the Rainbow Flag.

We're here, We're Queer, Get used to it.

How many times have you heard that, but let's think about it for awhile. We may be here, but many times the queer community doesn't know how we got there, nor does it do a good job of reminding younger generations about our history.

In honor of Pride Month and in an effort to better educate ourselves, we will be doing a few history lessons. The first is on the Rainbow Flag.

No symbol is used more internationally to distinguish our community. The rainbow flag may well be the most iconic representation of the GLBT culture and rightly so. In its very design, it incorporates many elements of our people. It's bright and audacious colors are reminiscent of the personalities of our friends and lovers. It's six colors side by side in perfect unison, shows the tolerance and inclusiveness of our community and the flag's reference to a natural phenomenon shows that we, as a people, are natural too.

Planetout gives a very succinct history of the flag here.

This website gives a similar story but also reveals that each color is representative of a component of our community.

And a third story here which includes references to The Rainbow Flag by Steven W. Anderson which appeared in GAZE Magazine.