Why does the LGBT community use the rainbow flag?

Sep 6 (AZINS) As the Supreme Court on Thursday striked down the British era law and said that consensual gay sex is not a crime, celebrations were marked across the country by the LGBT community.

The LGBT community celebrated the historic judgment as they hit the streets or posting on social media with rainbow coloured flags. The rainbow coloured flags is often seen during the rallies by the LGBT community whether it is the pride parade, any other protest march, celebrations to mark their sexuality or any other festivities. But, what is the significance of the rainbow coloured flags and why is it symbolic to the LGBT community?

History

History has it that the rainbow flag was first designed by American gay icon Gilbert Baker, an army personnel and also an activist, in 1978. Baker, a San Francisco based gay rights activists met another American popular gay icon Harvey Milk who was a politician in 1974. Baker, who was born in Kansas in 1951, was stationed in San Francisco in the early 1970s while serving in the US Army, at the start of the gay rights movement.

According to the website biography, Baker began making banners for gay rights and anti-war protests, often at the request of Harvey Milk, who would become the first openly gay man elected to public office in California when he won the 1977 race for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Milk rode under the first rainbow flags made by Baker at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade in June 1978, just months before the politician was murdered by a former city supervisor, the biography says. It was then that the rainbow flag was first used during the gay parade.

Since then, the flag has seen some changes in the colour bands, some have been removed or replaced. Each colour of the flag has its owns meaning. The present flag comprises of violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

The significance of the multi-culoured flag used by LGBT

The multicoloured flag of the LGBT community is to symbolise the togetherness and diversity of the community. It represents all religion, race, gender, age and nationality. Each colours in the flag has a symbolic representation - violet is for spirit, blue is for peace, green is for nature, yellow is for sunlight, orange means healing, red is for life.

On Thursday, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality.

The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed the part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises consensual unnatural sex as irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary.

The 493-page judgement was written by four judges headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. While CJI's verdict was 166 pages, Justice Nariman filed a 96-page judgment, Justice DY Chandrachud filed a 181-page judgement, and Justice Indu Malhotra's judgement was 50 pages.

The bench struck down part of (rpt part of) Section 377 of the IPC as being violative of the right to equality and the right to live with dignity.

"Any kind of sexual activity with animals shall remain a penal offence under Section 377 of the IPC,"  it said.

Delivering four separate but concurring judgements, the top court set aside its 2013 verdict which had re-criminalised consensual unnatural sex.

History owes an apology to members of the community for the delay in ensuring their rights," for denying them their rights and compelling them to live a life of fear, said Justice Indu Malhotra.