Gilbert Baker was overwhelmed when he saw the Whe Hoe l like a rabow. “Oh my God,” said the maker of the inic flag of the gay muny.
Contents:
- GILBERT BAKER, GAY ACTIVIST WHO CREATED THE RABOW FLAG, DI AT 65
- MEET GILBERT BAKER, THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE GAY PRI RABOW FLAG
- RSIAN ICE CREAM 'GAY PROPAGANDA' ROW
- DON'T LET THAT RABOW LOGO FOOL YOU: THE 9 CORPORATNS DONATED MILLNS TO ANTI-GAY POLICIANS
- WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?
GILBERT BAKER, GAY ACTIVIST WHO CREATED THE RABOW FLAG, DI AT 65
Mr. Baker’s emblem, which he created 1978, me to symbolize the gay rights movement. He scribed himself as the “gay Betsy Ross.” * gay rainbow maker *
Fredrik Persson/Agence France-Prse — Getty ImagMarch 31, 2017Gilbert Baker, a self-scribed “gay Betsy Ross” who 1978 hand-dyed and stched together eight strips of vibrantly lored fabric to a rabow flag, stantly creatg an endurg ternatnal symbol of gay pri, was found ad on Friday at his home New York Cy. He was Jon, a iend and gay rights activist who nfirmed the ath, said that Mr.
Baker had a stroke several years ago but had not been sick the gay rights movement spread om San Francis and New York the 1970s, Mr. His creatns, like others durg that time, often clud the pk triangle, which protters had claimed as an in after s ial e by the Nazis to intify gay men ncentratn mps durg World War a gay pri para 1978 San Francis, Harvey Milk, a cy supervisor and gay rights lear who was assassated that year, joed others askg Mr.
Baker to create an emblem to reprent the Baker, wh help om volunteers, filled trash ns wh dye the attic of the Gay Communy Center San Francis and pieced together the first flags, unveilg them the para on June 25, 1978. Baker, who created the rabow flag that beme a gay pri symbol, died on s troductn, the rabow flag has bee a universal symbol for cln, peace and love. It has been waved by gay rights supporters Cha fightg for equaly.
MEET GILBERT BAKER, THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE GAY PRI RABOW FLAG
June is Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr pri month, and the rabow flag -- that inic symbol for gay pri -- is flyg om Athens to San Francis to Brazil. Enter artist Gilbert Baker, the man who first me up wh the flag's sign some 34 years ago. * gay rainbow maker *
After the Uned Stat Supreme Court legalized gay marriage 2015, more than 26 ln people on Facebook changed their profile photos to clu the flag self has changed sce 1978, gog to six lors om eight. He served as a medic and was eventually statned San Francis, where he remaed after leavg the Army Francis was then a center for the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and after a police raid 1969 at the Stonewall Inn Manhattan, a gatherg spot for gay New Yorkers, more people began g out as gay. He created rabow flags for the recent ABC mi-seri “When We Rise, ” about the gay-rights recent weeks he had fished creatg 39 ne-lor flags — the eight origal lors, pl lavenr to reprent diversy — to memorate the 39th anniversary of the first rabow flag.
A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn B, Page 7 of the New York edn wh the headle: Gilbert Baker, 65, ‘Gay Betsy Ross’ of the Rabow Flag. YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP / Getty ImagA huge rabow flag is unfold durg the annual gay pri para Sao Plo, Brazil, June 10, 2012.
RSIAN ICE CREAM 'GAY PROPAGANDA' ROW
Ne of the biggt, most LGBTQ-supportive rporatns Ameri gave about $1 ln or more each to anti-gay policians the last electn cycle. Compani like AT&T, UPS, Comst, Home Depot and General Electric. All told, their donatns totaled almost $15 ln. * gay rainbow maker *
About 3 ln people were expected to take part the para unr the 2012 theme "Homophobia has a cure.
June is Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr pri month, and the rabow flag — that inic symbol for gay pri — is flyg om Athens to San Francis to Brazil. After beg discharged om the Army durg the Vietman War, Baker settled San Francis, where he tght himself to sew and soon began craftg banners for gay march and events, CBS Chigo reports. He eventually beiend Harvey Milk, the cy’s first openly gay elected official.
DON'T LET THAT RABOW LOGO FOOL YOU: THE 9 CORPORATNS DONATED MILLNS TO ANTI-GAY POLICIANS
Given Baker’s fluential role the gay muny, 1978 the San Francis Gay and Lbian Pri Para missned him to sign a new symbol that uld be ed year after year. “Let’s remember that 80 untri ’s still illegal to be gay and ten untri or so ’s a ath penalty, ” he told CBS.
MORE: Why Asia’s Gays are Startg to W Acceptance. "The rabow ia, I nnot say that was Gilbert's ia, " says Lynn Segerblom, now a Los Angel-area rint, who was, wh Baker, chair of the ratns mtee for the 1978 Gay Freedom Day celebratn. But he wasn't the gay Betsy Ross.
"Artie began to prs me to e up wh a new symbol for what he had lled 'the dawn of a new gay nscns and eedom, '" Baker wr. I thought a gay natn should have a flag too, to proclaim s own ia of power. "Later that week, while he and Jon were dancg to a band at the Cow Palace, Baker was imprsed wh the diversy of the crowd: hippi, bikers, punks, gay mcle boys, butch lbians.
WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?
Another is that creatg them was an arduo task -- but a labor of work took place at what was then the Gay Communy Center at 330 Grove San Francis. She also put stars on one of the flags, makg a gay "stars and strip, " g wood blocks to prt the the dyeg, she not, you uldn't jt leave the fabric the vat; you had to be movg around.
Segerblom took her life a different directn, movg to Los Angel to pursue her dream of an actg reer, then workg a bs that created murals and and others also note that jt a few months after Gay Freedom Day of 1978, the San Francis gay muny had more than flags to ncern them-- November of that year, Milk, the cy's first out elected official, and Mayor Gee Mosne were shot to ath Cy Hall by Dan Whe, a disgntled former member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors, where he served wh Milk. "The flags were a rponse to the hatred of Ana Bryant and John Briggs, " referrg to the sger who beme an antigay activist and the man who sponsored a ballot proposn that sought to keep gays and lbians om teachg California public schools. In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.
In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Gay Water, however, is out and proud.