Pride flags have been made over a variation of years, due to updates and changes being made within the community. The original rainbow pride flag dates back to 1978, when it was created by San Francisco-based queer artist Gilbert Baker. Over the next two years, its design was changed for different reasons. At the time, hot pink was a non-standard color in flag fabric production, and deemed too costly to reproduce. The turquoise and indigo stripes were also dropped in favor of royal blue when organizers of San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade wanted to split the flag in half to fly across the street and wanted equal stripes on both sides.