At that time, there were, in my opinion, no suitable bisexual icons that were colorful or prominent enough to gain instant and long lasting recognition as a flag. As a result of volunteer work I was doing for BiNet USA, it occurred to me that if bi-people were going to be visible at pride events and political rallies, we needed a Bi Pride Flag. The intent and purpose of the flag is to maximize bisexual pride and visibility. The first Bi Pride Flag was unveiled on Dec 5, 1998. Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a much-decorated Vietnam Veteran dying of AIDS, proposed that when a cure is eventually found the black stripes should be removed from all the flags and ceremoniously burned in Washington, D.C. Suggested by a San Francisco group, the black stripe commemorates those we have lost to AIDS.
The Victory Over AIDS Flag modifies the rainbow flag by adding a black stripe at the bottom.
In 1994, a huge 30-foot-wide by one-mile-long rainbow flag was carried by 10,000 people in New York's Stonewall 25 Parade. It is even officially recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers. This six color version spread from San Francisco to other cities, and soon became the widely known symbol of gay pride and diversity it is today. Due to production constraints -such as the fact that hot pink was not a commercially available color -pink and turquoise were removed from the design, and royal blue replaced indigo. The next year Baker approached San Francisco Paramount Flag Company to mass-produce rainbow flags for the 1979 parade. The flags had eight stripes, each color representing a component of the community: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. Baker and thirty volunteers hand stitched and hand dyed two huge prototype flags for the parade. Borrowing symbolism from the hippie movement and black civil rights groups, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in response to a need for a symbol that could be used year after year. Use of the rainbow flag by the gay community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. The rainbow also plays a part in many myths and stories related to gender and sexuality issues in Greek, Native American, African, and other cultures. The multicultural symbolism of the rainbow is nothing new - Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition also embraces the rainbow as a symbol of that political movement. The rainbow flag has become the easily recognized colors of pride for the gay community.