From a banner time, flying the full story of the rainbow flag

LOS ANGELES - It was the summer of 1978, and the Gay Community Center in San Francisco swarmed with dozens of young hippies flitting between ironing boards, sewing machines and trash cans filled with colorful dye.

They had been tasked with making two enormous flags to fly above the city's Gay Freedom Day Parade, and they wanted something bright. Something inclusive. Something hopeful.

Unbeknownst to them, their colorful project, the rainbow flag, would become the international symbol for LGBTQ rights, seen practically everywhere: atop City Hall in liberal West Hollywood, in countries like Uganda where homosexuality is illegal, in the Target clothing aisle during LGBTQ Pride Month.

Now, 40 years later, one of the women instrumental in the flag's creation says