The myriad life of rainbow flags ruled the city streets June 26.

On a summer morning gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and spectators lined Market Street as they showed off rainbow flags in the annual San Francisco Pride Parade and festival.

What does this flag mean? What does it represent?

The rainbow flag has been associated with the gay community for over 50 years, yet many people do not know the story behind the colors.

The flag was created by Gilbert Baker, a former board of supervisor in San Francisco. It was first shown at San Francisco’s gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.

Baker, who is formally known as the "gay Betsy Ross," dreamt of being an artist. In the early 1970s, Baker worked all day and night creating visuals for gay parades and marches.

Baker was asked to create a symbol to represent the gay community. He sewed up some colored fabric together to create a rainbow.

This rainbow fabric is now famously known as the rainbow flag.

Replacing the upside down pink triangle used by Hitler's Third Reich to identify gay men, the rainbow now represents the gay community.

The rainbow was first introduced with eight stripes - fuchsia, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet.

The fuchsia stands for sexuality; red, orange and yellow stand for healing, sunlight and nature, respectively. Turquoise, blue and violet, stand for art, serenity and spirit.

The high demand for rainbow flags in 1978 caused the production of the flags to exclude fuchsia because of the scarcity of the ink.

The flag was changed for the last time in 1979 without fuchsia and turquoise. This flag is popularly used today in annual gay pride parades and protests all over the country for gay civil rights.

There are other flags that represent the community besides the rainbow flag. The addition of the color black, representing the people who died from AIDS, is said to be removed once a cure is found for AIDS.

Many meanings have been attached to the rainbow symbol. The use of a similar flag was known for internationalism and unity of all people on earth during the early 1970s.

Ever since the 1980s the flag has been used to represent gay pride and rights, as well as the diversity of it.

The rainbow flag was used all around the world as a sign of diversity, hope and of yearning.

It was used in many protests such as the peace march in Italy in 1961. It was also involved in the famous Pace da tutti i balconi (“peace from every balcony”) campaign in 2002.

The flag is also used in Peru and Ecuador to represent Inca territory. There were many considerations of changing the flag to avoid confusion with the gay pride flag. But, today the same flag remains.

There are many variations of the flag in Canada, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Sweden. Similar rainbow flags are used to represent many countries.

When people wear the colors, it is easily assumed that they are gay, said Virgina Tovar, a SF State visitor.

“It’s a trigger response, they’re trying to say that they’re gay,” said Tovar.

"They should be proud in what they are.”