In an effort to unify the Marshall community and support all students and staff of our public schools, I would like to share with you the history and symbolism of the Pride flag also known as the Rainbow flag.

The original Pride flag was designed by artist Gilbert Baker in 1974. After being honorably discharged from the Army, Mr. Baker taught himself to sew. He was encouraged by the LGBTQ+ community to design a flag that would outwardly symbolize and support the gay community and also represent social equality.

The first flag had eight colored stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and violet. It was flown for the first time on June 28, 1978, in San Francisco at the Gay Freedom Day Parade.

Baker redesigned the flag soon after its first preview. He was sewing flags by hand and found that they were bulky and time consuming to make. So he reduced the size of the flag by removing the pink and turquoise stripes which produced a more rainbow-like appearance. The rainbow traditionally symbolizes peace and serenity.

Each stripe was assigned a symbolic value. Red symbolizes life, orange is healing, yellow represents sunlight, green symbolizes nature, indigo is serenity and violet means spirit.

In the past year and a half, the Pride flag has been redesigned or “rebooted” as the designer would say. Designer Daniel Quasar stated, “When the Pride flag was recreated in the last year to include both black/brown stripes as well as the trans stripes included this year, I wanted to see if there could be more emphasis in the design of the flag to give it more meaning.”

This is the flag that is being displayed in the Marshall Middle School at this time.

The redesigned flag maintains the six stripes which still symbolize life, healing, sunlight, nature, serenity and spirit. The hoist, the part of the flag nearest the staff, is an arrow shape which includes white, pink, blue, brown and black stripes. The arrow stripes point to the right which is meant to indicate progress, yet it is placed on the left side of the flag to represent that there is still progress to be made.

The newly added colors represent the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. Quasar borrowed the white, pink and blue stripes from the transgender flag created by Monica Helms in 1999. Helms describes the color symbols as follows, “The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender.”

Quasar adopted the brown and black stripes as part of his redesigned flag to address the underrepresented LGBTQ+ community of color. These colors were first added to the Pride flag by the city of Philadelphia in June 2017.

In summary, the Rainbow flag represents diversity, inclusion and progress. It is symbolic of life, healing, sunlight, nature, serenity and spirit.

I can think of no better representation and symbolism to create a positive and safe learning atmosphere for all students and staff of our public schools.

— Sue Morton is affiliated with the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Inc. in Marshall