The Pride flag was flown for the first time in 1978
The rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBTI+ community, was created by designer Gilbert Baker for San Francisco’s Freedom Day celebrations in 1978. Originally, the flag had eight colours, but since 1979 it has usually featured six.
The colours were chosen by Baker to symbolise life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), harmony (blue), and spirit (purple or violet). The removed colours represented sexuality (pink) and art or magic (turquoise).
Baker created the flag after being challenged by gay rights activist Harvey Milk to design a symbol for the gay and lesbian community.
After Milk’s assassination in 1978, demand for the flag increased dramatically and it began to be commercially produced. Due to a shortage of pink fabric, the pink stripe was dropped. Later, the turquoise stripe was removed so the design would appear symmetrical when hung vertically.
Baker said he wanted to convey the idea of diversity and inclusion, using “something from nature to represent that our sexuality is a human right”. He chose not to copyright his design, allowing it to be freely used.
Today, the Pride flag is recognised around the world. In 2016, the rainbow flag was added as an emoji in the Unicode Standard.
Gilbert Baker passed away in 2017.
George Michael was born on this day in 1963
Musician George Michael was born on this day in 1963. He became one of the most successful pop artists of the 1980s and 1990s, both as a member of Wham! and as a solo performer.
Wham! recorded a number of hit songs between 1982 and 1986, including Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Bad Boys, Everything She Wants, Freedom, Last Christmas, Im Your Man, The Edge of Heaven, Club Tropicana, Young Guns and Wham Rap.
Michael went on to have an enormously successful solo career, with hits such as Careless Whisper, A Different Corner, Freedom 90, Too Funky, Father Figure, Faith, Monkey and I Want Your Sex.
In the early 1990s, Michael entered into a prolonged legal dispute with his record company, Sony Music, which he ultimately lost. The case limited his ability to release new music for several years.
Around the same time, he met and fell in love with Brazilian fashion designer Anselmo Feleppa. Their relationship was short-lived, as Feleppa died from an AIDS-related illness.
When Michael released his next album Older, it was dedicated to Feleppa, and its songs reflected his grief and loss.
Years later, when he appeared on the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, Michael described Older as his greatest work and said he did not mind if he never surpassed it, as he did not wish to experience the same level of emotion again.
While the album was dedicated to Feleppa, many listeners did not initially recognise the references to a same-sex relationship. Michael’s sexuality became widely known in 1998 following his arrest for lewd behaviour in a Los Angeles police sting targeting men in public bathrooms.
After this, Michael spoke openly about his sexuality and relationships, and became a public campaigner for LGBT rights, also raising money for HIV research.
George Michael died in 2016 at the age of 53. His cause of death was later attributed to heart disease, along with complications associated with fatty liver.
Songwriter Labi Siffre was born on this day in 1945
Songwriter Labi Siffre was born on this day in 1945.
Siffre released a number of popular albums in the 1970s before taking a break from music. He has since returned periodically to release new material, although much of his work is widely recognised through covers and samples by other artists.
Among his best-known songs is It Must Be Love, which was later a hit for Madness. His 1975 track I Got The… was sampled by Eminem in My Name Is.
Fatboy Slim has also sampled Siffre’s work, and his 1972 song Crying Laughing Loving recently featured in the film The Holdovers.
In 1987, Siffre returned with the song (Something Inside) So Strong, which reflected on apartheid in South Africa and became an understated anthem against inequality and injustice.
As a gay, Black man in the music industry in the 1970s, Siffre was a trailblazer.
Siffre met his partner Peter Lloyd in 1964 and they were together for 48 years until Lloyd’s death in 2013. From the mid 1990s Siffre and Lloyd were in a ‘thruple’ relationship with a third man Rudolph van Baardwijk. The three men lived together in a small village in Wales.
Siffre and Lloyd entered into a civil partnership in 2005 when the option of a legally recognised relationship became available in Britain. Following Lloyd’s death he married van Baardwijk, but he passed away in 2016. Siffre now lives in Spain, and is enjoying a recently resurgence of interest in his work.
In early 2026 Siffre announced he’d would be releasing his first new album in almost three decades.
