I thought that we needed that kind of symbol, that we needed as a people something that everyone instantly understands. It’s not a painting, it’s not just cloth, it is not just a logo - it functions in so many different ways. “And I thought, a flag is different than any other form of art. “I began to notice the American flag - which is where a lot of the Rainbow Flag comes from - in the sense that all of a sudden the American flag everywhere - from Jasper Johns paintings to trashy jeans in the Gap and tchotchkes,” Baker recalls. In an interview with curatorial assistant Michelle Millar Fisher on the museum’s Inside/Out blog, Baker explains how his distinctive, eight-striped design grew out of the United States’ bicentennial celebrations in 1976. The Rainbow Flag that artist Gilbert Baker created in San Francisco in 1978, and which has since become the icon of the Gay and LGBT Pride movements, has just been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA) for its design collection. A giant Rainbow Flag at the Gay Pride Parade in Toulouse in 2014 (photo by Pablo029, via Wikimedia Commons)