How did the rainbow flag become a symbol of pride and community? The design was first unfurled on June 25, 1978 at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Led by the flag’s designer Gilbert Baker, thirty volunteers gathered at the Gay Community Center in San Francisco to hand-dye and stitch rainbow flags for the parade. Baker admired the universality of the rainbow, which he called a “natural flag in the sky.” “I knew how to sew—as I said, it came from being the drag queen that cou