Queensland Museum has been gifted a remarkable piece of LGBTQIA+ history – a section of the 25th anniversary Rainbow Flag, designed by artist and activist Gilbert Baker, creator of the original Pride flag.
The donation, made by Brisbane Pride Inc. during the month-long celebrations of Brisbane Pride, marks an important addition to the State Collection, ensuring that this powerful symbol of community, resilience and visibility will be preserved for generations to come.
The Story of the Pride Flag
In 1978, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker and a collective of community contributors stitched together a symbol that would become one of the most recognisable emblems of LGBTQIA+ hope and equality around the world – the Rainbow Flag.
Baker designed the flag as a visual statement of pride, diversity and liberation for LGBTQIA+ people at a time when open expression often carried immense risk. Each of the original colours carried meaning: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity, and violet for spirit.
The flag quickly became a unifying emblem at protests, marches and celebrations. It represented both the diversity within LGBTQIA+ communities and the collective strength of standing together under a shared banner.
The 25th anniversary Sea-to-Sea Pride Flag
By the early 2000s, the Rainbow Pride Flag had been embraced globally. To mark its 25th anniversary in 2002, Baker created a monumental version of the flag. Stretching 1.25 miles across Key West’s Duval Street from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, the flag symbolically united the seas in a powerful act of global queer pride.
Carried by thousands of volunteers, the design revived Baker’s original eight-colour palette, restoring the pink and turquoise stripes lost in earlier versions. After its one-time display, the flag was cut into 250 sections and gifted to Pride organisations worldwide — with Brisbane Pride the only Australian recipient to be entrusted as custodians of section 111. Measuring an impressive 7 x 4.5m, this section will now be preserved at Queensland Museum.
The significance of this gift goes far beyond its material form. The Pride flag embodies visibility, unity, resilience and hope – for many, raising the rainbow flag is a powerful act of affirmation and belonging. Having a piece of Gilbert Baker’s historic flag in Queensland’s State Collection ensures that this significant piece of living history and its connections to Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ community is continued to be shared.
The evolution of Pride in Queensland
Queensland has its own powerful history of Pride. With the earliest pride activities occurring in the early 1970s, and a Gay Pride week held in Brisbane in 1981, things gained new momentum in the early 1990s. The first rally and march was held on 30 June 1990, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Queensland. This visible act of resistance remains an important milestone for the LGBTQIA+ community. After years of activism and advocacy. Homosexuality was decriminalised in the Queensland Parliament in late 1990, becoming law in January 1991.
Since then, Pride in Queensland has grown from the original collective of determined activists, into the state’s largest annual celebration of queer culture and rights, bringing together thousands of people each year. The gifting of the Pride flag to Queensland Museum connects this global symbol with the local journey of resilience, protest and celebration.
Queensland Museum recently opened, Make a Scene: Fashioning Queer Identity and Club Culture in the 90s, a new exhibition that shares the story of a pivotal time in the history of Brisbane’s LGBTQIA+ community and the vibrant youth culture that emerged in the early ‘90s.
Coinciding with the 35th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the exhibition explores the shifting cultural expression and visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community through the lens of fashion, and the important role it played in expressing identity, resilience and pride during that era.
Pride Month and Make a Scene
The timing of the donation holds special meaning. The flag was presented during Evolving Pride an intergenerational panel discussion exploring the meaning and importance of pride to the LGBTQIA+ community, held at Queensland Museum on 18 September. The event was part of the Brisbane Pride Festival, both the exhibition and the flag reflect the ways queer communities have used art, fashion, performance and symbolism to carve out spaces of visibility, joy and resistance. Together, they highlight the importance of preserving not only objects but also the stories and identities they represent.
Make a Scene: Fashioning Queer Identity and Club Culture in the 90s is free and open daily from 9:30am – 5pm.
Queensland Museum Blog 
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