1978 Gay Freedom Day Para vio

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.

GAY FREEDOM DAY - MAN WH SHIRTLS CHILD ON SHOULRS

It was first showsed at San Francis’s Gay Freedom Day Para on June 25, the sign was unveiled, participants of the para proudly waved the new symbol solidary.

His legacy liv on the six-lored flag that fli proudly every Gay Pri month, regnizg the liv, and lov, of LGBT people worldwi. Part of the crowd at the Civic Center celebratn at the end of the 1977 San Francis Gay Freedom Day Para; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society. On June 27, 1970, a ty band of hippi and “hair fairi” staged San Francis’s first Pri celebratn: a march on Polk Street, followed on the 28th by a “gay-” Goln Gate Park.

1977 AND 1978 GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO

They were markg the first anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, when queers fought back agast a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York Cy. —Leo Lrence scribg the arrival of equtrian officers om the San Francis Police Department at the June 28 Gay-In that attracted some 200 people to Speedway Meadows Goln Gate Park.

A HISTORY OF GAY FREEDOM DAY, DYKE MARCH, AND TRANS MARCH

“Christopher Street Liberatn Day Gay-In, ” offset flyer, 1970; Charl Thorpe Papers (1987-02), GLBT Historil Society. Inially referred to as the Gay Liberatn March, then as Christopher Street Wt, then as Gay Freedom Day, the celebratn ployed both ivoly and prott hop of iatg a cultural shift how society viewed LGBTQ people.

EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970

View om the stage ont of San Francis Cy Hall, Gay Freedom Day Para, 1978; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society.

No formal statement was issued that first year, but one activist ma clear the purpose of the “betiful and peaceful” event: In the face of opprsn, “homophil gathered pri their inty.