Google Celebrates LGBTQ Pride Month with Rainbow Flag Doodle
Have you tried to Google anything today? If not, do so now and you'll see the search engine giant's new rainbow doodle, celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month.
More specifically, the doodle honors gay rights activist Gilbert Baker, who created the rainbow flag during the gay rights movement in 1978. Baker died of heart disease in April at 65. In addition, June 2 would mark his 66th birthday.
Google's animated .GIF shows pieces of different color fabric coming together to form the original LGBT pride flag. Doodle artist Nate Swinehart spoke with the Advocate about the creation.
"Today's doodle is by far the most personal I've ever made. Growing up as a member of the LGBT community, the rainbow flag has long been a hugely important symbol to me. I was immediately drawn to the image of [rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker] and other activists hand-dying and sewing together fabric in an attic to create the first flag. Most of our doodles are digitally created, but I knew this one had to be handmade.
(Image source: Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)
I collaborated with the other LGBT members of the team, and after a number of ideas we were all really excited about the idea of re-creating the original flag. So I taught myself to sew and turned my apartment into a tiny, makeshift studio to film the process in stop-motion animation. The whole thing felt really exciting and energetic since I was in unfamiliar waters, but I was thrilled with the tactile feeling of the final doodle! It was especially inspiring knowing I was filming just a few blocks from where the first flag was created.
In the end, I'm enormously proud and honored to have created something personal, pushed myself artistically, and celebrated a man who had such a lasting impact on me and my community. Hopefully seeing this image on the home page will strengthen anyone out there dealing with any sort of uncertainty or hardship the way it strengthened me. Thanks to Gilbert for making our world so much more colorful!"