I almost instantly thought of using the rainbow. Even though the pink triangle was and still is a powerful symbol, it was very much forced upon us. Why a rainbow? Baker explained in a 2008 interview with the Independent, a British newspaper: 'In 1978, when I thought of creating a flag for the gay movement there was no other international symbol for us than the pink triangle, which the Nazis used to identify homosexuals in concentration camps. As The New York Times reported in its obituary for Baker, who died March 31, each stripe had meaning: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for peace and purple for spirit. Gilbert Baker's original flag had eight stripes.
