The Rainbow Flag is now synonymous with the weekly “Clap for Carers’ ritual The rainbow flag was designed to bring together the community under a flag that was born out of love for one another and not hate. It was created by the Nazi’s during WW2 to identify, stigmatise, and segregate homosexuals who were viewed as a virus on society in the same way that the Star of David was used for the Jews. The criticism of the use of the flag has stemmed from the community that created it. Before the creation of the flag a Pink Triangle was used but, the triangle was born out of division. Since the beginning of the lockdown, the flag has become associated with the NHS and has been featured on colouring in pages, badges, and been chalked on the streets to celebrate the NHS and help calm children during the crisis.

The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and the flag has been flown all around the world at pride events ever since. Over the decades this has gone under several transitions as a result of fabric availability, the most common is the 6-stripe version. The flag was originally designed by artist Gilbert Baker and debuted in 1978 with 8 stripes in San Francisco. Over the past week, numerous news outlets have expressed outrage at the use of the ‘rainbow’ flag by the NHS.