Rabow Flag The rabow flag has bee the easily regnized lors of pri for the gay muny. The multicultural symbolism of the rabow is nothg new— Jse Jackson's Rabow Coaln also embrac the rabow as a symbol of that polil movement.
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WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?
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.
SYMBOLS OF GAY AND LBIAN CULTURE
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. It go back to 1978, when the artist Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man and a drag queen, signed the first rabow flag.
Baker later revealed that he was urged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials the U.
S., to create a symbol of pri for the gay muny. As he later said an terview, “Our job as gay people was to e out, to be visible, to live the tth, as I say, to get out of the lie. The first versns of the rabow flag were flown on June 25, 1978, for the San Francis Gay Freedom Day para.