Creator of the LGBT Flag, Gilbert Baker, dies at 65

Gilbert Baker, the San-Francisco-based artist who created the rainbow flag as a symbol for the gay community in 1978, has died at age 65. Mr Baker died peacefully in his sleep in his New York home on Thursday evening. A candlelight vigil is planned in San Francisco on Friday evening.

Baker original design, an eight-colors flag, was created for the San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day, the precursor to the modern Pride Parade. Many have shown their respects including Activist Cleve Jones and Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.

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My dearest friend in the world is gone. Gilbert Baker gave the world the Rainbow Flag; he gave me forty years of love and friendship. pic.twitter.com/titd3XZ0zD

— Cleve Jones (@CleveJones1) March 31, 2017

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Rainbows weep. Our world is far less colorful without you, my love. Gilbert Baker gave us the #RainbowFlag to UNITE us. #UNITE again.□️‍□ pic.twitter.com/fvviXobM0P

— Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) March 31, 2017

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Mr Baker's original flag represented different aspects of humanity:

• Pink - sexuality
• Red - life
• Orange - healing
• Yellow- sunlight
• Green - nature
• Turquoise - art
• Indigo - harmony
• Violet - human spirit

The flag would later be reduced to six stripes, removing pink and indigo, and swapping blue for turquoise. Baker said he wanted to convey the idea of diversity and inclusion, using "something from nature to represent that our sexuality is a human right." The New York Museum of Modern Art acquired the flag for its design collection, in 2015, calling it a "powerful design milestone". Baker told the Museum in an interview, "I decided that we should have a flag, that a flag fit us as a symbol, that we are a people, a tribe if you will."

Gilbert was recently portrayed in the ABC mini-series "When We Rise" based on the book by Baker's friend, Cleve Jones.

A candlelit vigil is planned on Castro and Market in San Francisco for 7:00 p.m. beneath Gilbert's flag.