Originally devised by the artists Gilbert Baker, Lynn Segerblom, James McNamara and other activists,[1][2][3][4] the design underwent several revisions after its debut in 1978, and continues to inspire variations.

Although Baker's original rainbow flag had eight colors,[5][6] from 1979 to the present day the most common variant consists of six stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

LGBTQ people and allies currently use rainbow flags and many rainbow-themed items and color schemes as an outward symbol of their identity or support.

[9][10] A close friend of Baker's, independent filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr., pressed him to create a new symbol at "the dawn of a new gay consciousness and freedom".

[11] According to a profile published in the Bay Area Reporter in 1985, Baker "chose the rainbow motif because of its associations with the hippie movement of the Sixties but he notes that the use of the design dates all the way back to ancient Egypt".

[16][17][18][19] The first rainbow flags commissioned by the fledgling pride committee were produced by a team that included artist Lynn Segerblom.

[26][27] After the assassination of gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk on November 27, 1978,[28] demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased.

In response, the San Francisco-based Paramount Flag Company began selling a version using stock rainbow fabric with seven stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet.

[33][34] In autumn 2004 several gay businesses in London were ordered by Westminster City Council to remove the rainbow flag from their premises, as its display required planning permission.

[35] When one shop applied for permission, the Planning sub-committee refused the application on the chair's casting vote (May 19, 2005), a decision condemned by gay councillors in Westminster and the then-Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

In November the council announced a reversal of policy, stating that most shops and bars would be allowed to fly the rainbow flag without planning permission.

In June 2004 LGBT activists sailed to Australia's uninhabited Coral Sea Islands Territory and raised the rainbow flag, proclaiming the territory independent of Australia, calling it the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands in protest to the Australian government's refusal to recognize same-sex marriages.

[37][38][39] On June 26, 2015, the White House was illuminated in the rainbow flag colors to commemorate the legalization of same-sex marriages in all 50 U.S. states, following the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision.

[45] In March 2016, rainbow stamps were created by a postal service common to Sweden and Denmark celebrating pride traversing borders internationally.

[45][46] In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to sell (or wear) 'rainbow-coloured' items, as it apparently "indirectly promotes homosexuality" and claims to "contradict normal common sense".

[49] There have been many activism statements made with using the rainbow colors to create "hidden flags", in order to express their political agenda and support for gay rights and diversity.

State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals (FELGTB) partnered with LOLA Mullenlowe, a Spanish advertising agency, to conceive and execute the hidden flag campaign.

[59][60][61] On February 12, 2018, during the street carnival of São Paulo, thousands of people attended a parade called Love Fest,[62] which celebrated human diversity, sexual and gender equality.

[65][66][67] While retaining the common six-stripe rainbow design as a base, the "Progress" variation adds a chevron along the hoist that features black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes to bring those communities (marginalized people of color, trans people, and those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost) to the forefront; "the arrow points to the right to show forward movement, while being along the left edge shows that progress still needs to be made".

Puerto Rican author and vegan activist Julia Feliz conceived the idea, and Hayley Brown designed the flag to focus on transgender and queer people of color.

Quasar has stated openly that small organisations can use the flag commercially and the license was chosen to put restrictions on large corporations.

Leonard Matlovich, himself dying of AIDS-related illness, suggested that upon a cure for AIDS being discovered, the black stripes be removed from the flags and burned.

[22] In 2002, another LGBT activist, Eddie Reynoso, recreated Gilbert Baker's original 1978 tie-dye flag,[87] incorporating a blue canton, with white stars that were painted to a pink color, as residents in states across the nation gained the right to same-gender marriage.

The flag- named the Pride Constellation,[88] was first painted on a canvas—as a protest symbol during Nevada's constitutional amendment to define marriage as that between a man and a woman.

In 2009, the flag was featured prominently on local and national news outlets as they reported on the California Supreme Court's ruling- to uphold the state's marriage equality ban.

[112] The largest rainbow flag in the Southern Hemisphere is a six-stripe one first flown to mark the fourth Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) Pride in 2014,[113] held in the city of Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape province, South Africa.

[119] United We Pride then had the flag sent to Paris, London, Berlin, Vancouver, Sydney, Miami, and Tokyo, ending in New York City for Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019.

[122][123] In June 2019, to coincide with the fifty-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots,[124] steps at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park were turned into the largest LGBT pride flag.

In June 1992, several of MTV's on-air hosts wore Freedom Rings in recognition of Pride Month, elevating their visibility.

It gained popularity in Spain from April 2019 after a tweet from the official account of the far-right party Vox, after which a multitude of users belonging to the LGBT movement began to use it as a symbol.