“Each had eight stripes in rainbow colours,” he continues. The flags, sizing in at around thirty feet high by sixty feet wide, were the brainchildren of the Gay Freedom Day Decorations Committee, cochaired by Gilbert Baker and Lynn Segerblom – “self-proclaimed hippies”, Koskovich says.
“At the Plaza entrance, marchers were welcomed by an exceptional sight: in place of the United States and United Nations flags usually flown from a towering pair of flagpoles, two enormous rainbow banners billowed overhead.” Their contemporary symbolism had yet to be established, of course, but as Koskovich asserts, “They created a beautifully paradoxical impression, at once festive and awe-inspiring.” “To reach Civic Center, the route turned just once, veering to the right at United Nations Plaza,” says Koskovich. The 1978 parade began on Market Street and ended with a festival in front of San Francisco City Hall. By 1978, the event boasted almost a quarter of a million revellers from across the United States and, indeed, the globe.
The first had occurred eight years prior, attracting just a handful of marchers. On 25 June 1978, San Franciscans across the city celebrated Gay Freedom Day, as the annual Pride celebration was then known. When it comes to the rainbow flag, we know, for sure, how and when things began.
