The first rainbow flag was handmade.
In 1978, an artist named Gilbert Baker and a small crew of volunteers hand-dyed fabric in trash cans and stitched it together on sewing machines in a San Francisco attic. They were making something the community could carry. Something joyful. Something that said, without a single word, we are here, and we love.
Nearly fifty years later, that flag flies in every corner of the world. And every June, we get to celebrate what it stands for.
We make rainbow bracelets the same way that first flag was made: by hand, by people who put real care into every inch. Each one is beaded by artisan women in Darjeeling, India, in the Ngong Hills of Kenya, and in workshops across Bali. When you wear one for Pride, you are carrying two stories at once. The story of a community that fought to love openly, and the story of the woman who made it.
