The rainbow flag is a sign of diversity, inclusiveness, hope and yearning.  It is a symbol of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) community and we fly the flag at One Meaning to show our love and support of our LGBT family, friends and business partners.  One Meaning believes strongly in equality and love.  We think more fundamental rights should be given to people, not taken away.  

By flying the pride flag on every one of our pages, we hope to inspire visitors to our site to learn a little about the LGBT community.   One Meaning is a staunch supporter of tolerance for one another’s way of life - it is the key to harmony.   Being a company based on symbols with meaning, we think it’s important to share the meaning behind the Pride Flag (straight, or rather direct,  from Wikipedia):

The original gay-pride flag was hand-dyed by Gilbert Baker. It flew in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.  A suggestion for how the rainbow flag originated is that at college campuses during the 1960s, some people demonstrated for world peace by carrying a Flag of the Races (also called the Flag of the Human Race) with five horizontal stripes (from top to bottom they were red, black, brown, yellow, and white). Gilbert Baker is said to have gotten the idea for the rainbow flag from this flag in borrowing it from the Hippie movement of that time largely influenced by pioneering homosexual activist Allen Ginsberg. The flag consisted of eight stripes; Baker assigned specific meaning to each of the colors:

Thirty volunteers hand-dyed and stitched the first two flags for the parade.  After the November 27, 1978, assassination of openly gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased. To meet demand, the Paramount Flag Company began selling a version of the flag using stock rainbow fabric consisting of seven stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet. As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he too dropped the hot pink stripe because of the unavailability of hot-pink fabric.

In 1979 the flag was modified again. When hung vertically from the lamp posts of San Francisco's Market Street, the center stripe was obscured by the post itself. Changing the flag design to one with an even number of stripes was the easiest way to rectify this, so the turquoise stripe was dropped, which resulted in a six stripe version of the flag - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

When we learn the stories about people, they become more meaningful to us.  To learn more about the LGBT fight for equality so that you can understand a bit more about their struggles and victories, we recommend you start with Stonewall riots:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots  

We encourage you to have love in your heart and help those who don’t.   If you witness bullying, name calling, or general abuse of anyone, DON’T tolerate it.  Step in and stop it, say something and end it.   It is not cool to be cruel.

813,

Ingrid and Karen

One Meaning