How did rainbows come to be associated with gays & lesbians??? And the color green?

Answer 1

Gilbert Baker designed and created the first rainbow flag in 1978 as his response to a call for a rallying, community symbol.
Baker was a San Francisco artist and he designed the ORIGINAL flag with eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Baker stated those colors represented:
1) sexuality,
2) life,
3) healing,
4) sun,
5) nature,
6) art,
7) harmony and,
8) spirit, respectively.

If you look at the flags in use today, the colors differ somewhat. Additionally, today's 'modern' flag has only six colors or stripes.

In further response: GREEN = Nature.

Hope this helps! :)

Answer 2

The rainbow flag has been associated with many movements over history, but during the 1970's it came through parades and protests to be associated with gay pride. It is recognized as the gay pride flag by the international flag association here is the story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag
Green too, has been the symbol of many people and nations, but in the late 19th c. Oscar Wilde made the green carnation a symbol of his art movement, and after his trial, it became a symbol of "gay" (the word did not have its present meaning then) protest and identity. if you scroll down on this site about gay pride symbols, you will find the story of the green carnation:
http://dorothyhorror.tripod.com/id11.html

Answer 3

the traditional six-stripe rainbow flag was designed and fabricated in1978 by Gilbert Baker of San Francosco. I read that in a book called "Is It A Choice?"-Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Gay and Lesbian People by Eric Marcus. He is a well-known writer on homosexuality with over a dozen books answering hundreds of questions like that. i don't have a clue about the color green or like somebody else said that gays wear it on thursdays. i wore green yesterday and it wasn't because i'm gay, even though i am. just coincidence on my part.

Answer 4

The use of the rainbow flag by the GLBT community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco gay and lesbian freedom day parade (as it was first called). San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in response to the LGBT community requests for a symbol.

red- life, orange-healing, yellow-sun, green-nature, blue-harmony, purple-spirit.

Answer 5

I just wanted to throw in (there've been several good replies re: the rainbow and a couple about green) that I'm pretty active in the gay community, and I've at least started doing my homework on queer history, but the green thing is TOTALLY a new one on me. Never heard of that before.

Answer 6

The rainbow flag, sometimes called 'the freedom flag', has been used as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride since the 1970s. The different colors symbolize diversity within the gay community,

Answer 7

i didn't live in the 60 and 70's so I'm not to sure why they picked the rainbow, however my mom told me it was to represent the differences among people and how they can work together to form something great. whatever is the reason the rainbow is a source of pride and power so more power to those who wear it.
and i thought it was purple. not green but who knows. usually at big events they wear red....thus red shirt day

Answer 8

I believe that the rainbow came from the Rainbow coalition, and became a symbol of the community over time.

Reynolds Jones

Answer 9

I've always associated the colour green with Ireland, not with gays and lesbians.

Answer 10

It originated from Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition