On Spirit Day, held on the third Thursday of October each year in the US and coordinated by GLAAD, millions of people wear purple to visibly show solidarity with LGBT+ youth and to take part in the largest, most visible LGBT+ anti-bullying campaign in the world sending a message to young people that homophobic bullying won’t be tolerated, and that together we can end it. The flag was designed by the artist Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man, partly in response to a challenge from significant gay rights activist Harvey Milk. You put a rainbow flag on your windshield and you’re saying something.” Spirit Day He told ABC7 news in 1972: “I like to think of those elements as in every person, everyone shares that. The original designed by Gilbert Baker in 1977 had eight stripes, but was changed to the six-stripe version we are all familiar with because of a shortage of pink and turquoise fabric.īaker explained that each colour in his flag represented something different pink was for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity and purple for the spirit.
