" Milk and his allies wanted their movement to signify hope. So he approached a friend, the graphic designer Gilbert Baker, who suggested a rainbow instead. “A rainbow fit us,” said the man who became famous as the “gay Betsy Ross.” “It is from nature. It connects us to all the colors—all the colors of sexuality, all the diversity in our community. "

― Rick Perlstein , Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980