In 1978 San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed a flag for that city's Gay Freedom celebration. It has six stripes, each a different color ranging from purple to red.
Bumper stickers representing the flag are also common around the city.
In 1970 members of the Gay Activist Alliance chose the Greek letter lambda as their symbol because a flag with a lambda on it was carried by a regiment of Greek warriors who were accompanied into battle by their younger male lovers and were noted for their fierceness and willingness to fight to the death. Many LGBT organizations since 1970 have taken the lambda as their symbol or part of their name. The Pink Triangle Under the Nazi regime, concentration camp prisoners wore colored triangles that indicated their classification and thus the reason they were considered enemies of the state. Just as Jews wore two superimposed yellow triangles, homosexual men wore pink triangles. When the Allies liberated the camps in 1945, most survivors were freed, but the US Army simply transferred those wearing pink triangles to other prisons.