As the US Supreme Court legalises gay marriage across the nation and LGBT Pride Month draws to a close, the new design acquisition of the Museum of Modern Art in New York could hardly be more timely. The museum added the rainbow flag, the symbol of gay pride created in 1978 by the artist and activist Gilbert Baker, to its permanent collection last week. The museum wasted no time putting the flag on view. To commemorate the Supreme Court's decision on 26 June, the museum installed the flag in its contemporary design gallery on the third floor that very afternoon. According to an interview on MoMA’s website, Gilbert Baker, who had learned to sew from making his own drag queen costumes, hand-dyed and stitched the first two eight-colour cotton flags with a team of volunteers in San Francisco. They were raised at the city’s United Nations Plaza on 25 June 1978, when an estimated 240,000 people marched for the Gay Freedom Day Parade. The design may have changed over the years—to a cheaper six-colour version in more durable nylon—but its legacy lives on. Baker says: “I hoped it would be a great symbol but… it became so much bigger than me, than where I was producing it, much bigger even than the US. Now it’s made all over the world. The beauty of it is the way that it has connected us.”
