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SF’s Lost Original 1978 Rainbow Flag is Back!

Lost for 40 years, a 10×28′ portion of the original rainbow flag finally returns to San Francisco
By - posted 6/8/2021 No Comment

In April 2021, San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society received an archival donation of an extraordinary, unique piece of history they just unveiled to the public on June 4, 2021.

The GLBT museum now has a new exhibit featuring a large fragment (10 x 28 feet) of one of the two monumental rainbow flags first raised on June 25, 1978 in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade that was thought lost for over 40 years.

How to See the Original 1978 Rainbow Flag
On display at The GLBT Historical Society Museum
4127 18th Street (between Castro and Collingwood), San Francisco
Tickets are $10 for adults, $6 for youth, seniors, students, active military and people with disabilities

The GLBT Museum has a free day the first Saturday of every month (adv tickets required)

The Original Flag
Displaying the original design’s eight colored stripes, it was created by Gilbert Baker and hand-stitched and dyed with the help of volunteers and friends, including Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran and Paul Langlotz. Thought to have been lost for over 40 years, the fragment, shown in the banner above, was recently rediscovered and is the only known surviving remnant of the two inaugural rainbow flags.

Changes to the Original Flag – From 8 Colors to 6
The first 30-feet-high by 60-feet-wide design subsequently underwent several revisions due to cost and display considerations. In 1979 the hot pink stripe was dropped due to the unavailability of flag fabric in this color. Baker also removed the turquoise stripe to create an even number of stripes for display on each side of the streetlamps on Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day parade. This resulted in the popularly known and still most common six-stripe variant of the flag.

Lost and Found
In June of 1979, Gilbert planned to retrieve the original flags from storage at the San Francisco Gay Community Center. He discovered that the flags, stored under a leaky roof, were badly mildewed. Gilbert Baker managed to salvage a portion of one of the original eight-color flags. This fragment remained in his possession, secretly, for decades. When Baker died unexpectedly in 2017, this original flag piece was among boxed possessions that were given to his sister Ardonna Cook.

This iconic symbol and its evolution have become an intrinsic part of LGBTQ identity, culture, politics and society. Gilbert Baker worked tirelessly to ensure that the rainbow flag would become a universally recognized, global emblem of the LGBTQ community and its proud legacy.

 

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