June 27, 2020

Celebrating Pride by Supporting QTPOC and LGBTQ Rights

The History Behind Pride and the Rainbow Flag

Harvey Milk asked Gilbert Baker to design a unifying symbol for the gay community, and what did they come up with? You got it—a rainbow flag! The rainbow flag debuted as the symbol of Pride in the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade (via ShareMyLesson.com).

Gilbert Baker (third from right) raising one of the first rainbow flags in San Francisco in 1978

Gilbert Baker’s design is a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community; each color has a specific meaning!

RED 一 life

ORANGE 一 healing

YELLOW 一 sunlight

GREEN 一 nature

BLUE 一 harmony

PURPLE 一 spirit

Originally, the Pride flag included two more colors: pink and turquoise. In order to commercially produce the flag and increase its recognizability, the pink and turquoise were dropped, giving us the Pride flag we all know and love today.

Pride originally took place at the end of June, on an unofficial National Pride Day to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Riots took place in New York in June 1969, when gay bars were illegal. The bravery LGBTQ activists displayed in the incident is considered the start of the gay liberation movement (via ThailandTatler.com). Now, Pride is a month-long celebration and commemoration of the LGTBQ community’s historic fight for equality.

How LIP Celebrates Pride

Just like Gilbert Baker, we designed all the bracelets in our Rainbow Collection to reflect the spirit of Pride that the rainbow flag captures.

Just some of the bracelets in our Rainbow Collection!

All of our bracelets in the collection are colorful, vibrant, and unique, just like the community we’re supporting! Go for a vivid rainbow PRIDE seed bead bracelet, or go for a more understated gold Darjeeling bracelet. Or wear your heart on your sleeve (literally!) with one of our Rainbow River Hearts bracelets!

Our Gold and Silver Darjeeling Bracelets, handmade in India!

Our LOVE is LOVE bracelets, made by artisans in Jalisco, Mexico!

Due to design constraints, we unfortunately couldn’t include purple in some of our bracelets. On the flag, purple represents spirit, and the spirit of the rainbow and the spirit of pride is woven into all of our bracelets. We know that the color purple is an important one, which is why we also have lots of purple bracelets for you to choose from! There’s our Purple Empower LOVE Bracelet, and a handwoven Purple & Violet Atitlan LOVE Bracelet. Check out our website for more!

If you haven’t decided to buy a bracelet yet, maybe this will convince you: during the month of June, we are donating 5% of all of our profits to ITGETSBETTERPROJECT.ORG, an organization that benefits the LGBTQ+ community!

It Gets Better Project’s core mission is to empower, connect, and uplift LGBTQ+ youth all around the world. The organization was started from the it gets better movement on social media in 2010, and has now spread to 20 other countries around the world. Through moving stories, educational resources, and international affiliates, It Gets Better Project is able to inspire millions of LGBTQ+ youth every year. This year, they are celebrating their 10 year anniversary!

How To Show Your PRIDE and Be an Ally!

Wear your Love Is Project bracelets with PRIDE this June! Buy one for yourself, or send one to a friend. Or, show that you’re a proud ally with our LGBTQ+ Ally Collection! Wear our new Pride bracelets to parades, brunches, parties, and everything in between!

This Pride we want to continue the fight for LGBTQ rights and specifically highlight the QTPOC (Queer and Trans People of Color) community. This community is among the people most likely to experience violence. According to the Anti-Violence Project, "trans people are seven times more likely to experience police violence, and transgender women were 1.8 times more likely to experience sexual violence when compared with other survivors."

At Love Is Project, our hope is to spread LOVE to as many people around the world as possible. This Pride Month, love yourself, your friends, your family, and others, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification. If you’re an ally, support your LGBTQ+ friends in all ways possible. And if you identify as LGBTQ+, be proud of who you are and own your individuality! You are you, and nobody can take that away.

XOXO,