What Do the Rabow Mean for Gays? | Dirg God

Contents:

• GAY PRI
• WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?
• GAY RIGHTS
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

GAY PRI

He was missned to create a flag by another gay in, polician Harvey Milk, for San Francis’s annual pri cisn to enlist Baker proved serendipo, as the ia of a flag to reprent the gay and lbian muny had occurred to him two years earlier. As Baker told the Mm of Morn Art durg a 2015 terview, he had been spired by the celebratns markg Ameri’s bicentennial 1976, notg that the nstant display of stars and strip ma him realize the cultural need for a siar rallyg sign for the gay muny. And as a stgglg drag performer who was acctomed to creatg his own garments, he was well-equipped to sew the soon-to-be inic the time, the most monly ed image for the burgeong gay rights movement was the pk triangle, a symbol ed by the Nazis to intify homosexuals.

At the top was hot pk, which reprented sex, red for life, orange for healg, yellow signifyg sunlight, green for nature, turquoise to reprent art, digo for harmony, and fally vlet at the bottom for the help of close to 30 volunteers workg the attic of the Gay Communy Center San Francis, Baker was able to nstct the first draft of the now world-renowned rabow flag. From participatg the historic April 1965 Whe Hoe picket llg for equal rights for homosexuals, to -foundg the Washgton Bla, to creatg long-nng social opportuni for lol lbians, and more, Lilli Vcenz fed “pneer.

WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?

) He ma the flag for the Gay Freedom Pri Para that year San Francis, at the requt of Harvey Milk, a gay cy polician who was assassated later that symbol took hold immediately. Durg the Holot, Nazis forced gay men to wear pk triangl as a symbol of sexual rabow flag was a way of takg the var lors and turng them to a herent symbol, reclaimed by the LGBT muny. SSudnly, they are everywhere: stretched across balni, flappg om r antennas, and pned to at lapels the world over a movg display of solidary wh the muny that was btally terrorised on Sunday after a bigoted asslt at a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida.

Acrdg to the US gay activist Gilbert Baker, who is creded wh creatg the emblem the late 1970s, the ia behd the flag’s bold sign emerged 1976 – the year the Uned Stat celebrated the bicentenary of s pennce as a republic. “Flags are about proclaimg power” – Gilbert BakerIt was agast this turbulent backdrop that San Francis Cy Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person ever to be elected to public office California, enuraged Baker 1977 to vise a unique symbol for the gay muny – an signia of pri pable of affirmg social pennce.

Hypnotised by the talismanic tensy of the US flag and s abily to transmute self art and fashn – om pricey Pop Art patgs by Jasper Johns to gngy nim patch – Baker was drawn to the ceptive simplicy of a field of stacked strip as a symbol for many stched together as flag has appeared around the world memorials for those killed at the mass shootg Orlando (Cred: Getty Imag)In ntemplatg how, precisely, he should revent that pattern, Baker was aware that any sign he produced would pete popular imagatn wh a paful, if rilient, logo by which the gay muny had long been intified. A equently ced hypothis lks the rabow to the rplennt ra of the actrs Judy Garland, long nsired a gay in (her role the film The Wizard of Oz has yield the lloquial slang-phrase “iend of Dorothy” as a term for a gay man), and to her famo performance of the song Over the wrers have noted that strong bright lours (such as the green rnatn Osr Wil wore to signify his sexual orientatn) have for centuri served as shorthand for homosexualy. Displayed for the first time the Uned Natns Plaza downtown San Francis June 1978, this eight-striped versn was produced by a team of 30 volunteers manerg the washg mach of a public lndromat orr to rse the dye om the fabric and the wi attic space of a gay muny centre, where the dividual strips were ironed and sewn together.

GAY RIGHTS

This is the versn that Harvey Milk would have known, if all too briefly, the few short months before he and the Mayor of San Francis, Gee Mosne, were shot to ath Cy Hall on 27 November by a ranged former lleague of Milk’ activist Harvey Milk was killed San Francis Cy Hall 1978 (Cred: Getty Imag)Demand for the rabow flag accelerated the aftermath of the murrs for display at gay pri paras and at events anised honour of the sla champn of LGBT rights. In 1994, a e-long versn of the flag, which streamed through the streets of New York to mark the 25-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall rts Greenwich Village (a ccial moment the gay liberatn movement), set a rerd for the longt flag ever produced and helped plant the symbol permanently social ’s creatn is thread by perseverance and tged by paNow the flag is everywhere.

1970s: Do It YourselfIn Andy Campbell’s sential book Queer x Dign, the historian wr that the Vietnam vet and marijuana activist Gilbert Baker “was asked by San Francis cy supervisor Harvey Milk to sign a new flag for the upg Gay Freedom Day celebratns, ” 1978. Both were flown at San Francis’s Uned Natns Plaza as a global statement of gay ever-changg Pri symbol has been revised the story go, Harvey Milk and San Francis mayor Gee Mosne were assassated a few months later.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

Nicholson Earle, a member of the AIDS Coaln to Unleash Power, began preparg for a 1990 journey which he rried a rabow flag the 1, 000 between San Francis to the openg of the Gay Gam Vanuver, Brish Columbia. In 1998, activist Michael Page offered a tristriped Bisexual Pri flag, which was 40% Pantone 226 (pk, for homosexualy), 40% Pantone 286 (blue, for heterosexualy), and 20% Pantone 258 (purple, for the blend).

Meanwhile, an abundance of new flags arrived, like 2017, when Philalphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs vised an eight-stripe eratn which, solidary wh the muni of people of lor recently targeted vlent cints at lol gay bars, add a stripe of black and a stripe of brown. The end of the saw some three ln people, and one of the world’s largt pri flag, take over the streets of São Plo for a prott agast antigay Brazilian print Jair Bolsonaro. ”And Baker’s origal is still potent—a few days ago, someone burned a Pri flag and set fire to a few hom Baltimore, while across the untry, at Seattle Pacific Universy, dozens of stunts prottg their school’s ban on full-time staff’s right to be same-sex relatnships thst a rabow flag to the hand of their homophobic print exchange for their the rabow flag might feel so ubiquo that ’s lost s potency, clearly those who oppose gay rights feel otherwise.

"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. "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. 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.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

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.