Meet Gilbert Baker, the Man Who Invented the Gay Pri Rabow Flag |

Contents:

• MEET GILBERT BAKER, THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE GAY PRI RABOW FLAG
• GILBERT BAKER, CREATOR OF THE GAY PRI RABOW FLAG, DI AT 65
• GAY PRI FLAG CREATOR PROUD BUT HUMBLE
• THE ORIG OF THE GAY MEN’S PRI FLAG AND ITS MEANG
• UNY AND RISTANCE: THE HISTORY BEHD THE GAY PRI FLAG

MEET GILBERT BAKER, THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE GAY PRI RABOW FLAG

The rabow flag, which has bee a universal symbol of hope for LGBTQ people around the world, first flew San Francis’s Uned Natns Plaza for Gay Pri Day, on June 25, 1978.

It had eight lors – two more than today’s versn – and was signed by Gilbert Baker, an openly gay artist and activist.

He had been missned to sign a symbol for the LGBTQ muny by his iend Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official California.

GILBERT BAKER, CREATOR OF THE GAY PRI RABOW FLAG, DI AT 65

It go back to 1978, when the artist Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man and a drag queen, signed the first rabow flag. 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. YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP / Getty ImagA huge rabow flag is unfold durg the annual gay pri para Sao Plo, Brazil, June 10, 2012.

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.

GAY PRI FLAG CREATOR PROUD BUT HUMBLE

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. Gilbert Baker was a soldier om Kansas, statned San Francis at the start of the gay liberatn he was honorably discharged om the ary, he cid to teach himself to sew. ”Soon he began sewg flags for gay and antiwar street 1978, he signed and sewed the banner that would bee a symbol for LGBTQ rights around the world: the rabow died at 65 his sleep at his New York home, said Jon, a longtime gay rights and AIDS activist.

”In the mid-1970s, gay activists the Castro District of San Francis — cludg Jon, Baker and Harvey Milk — were tryg to e up wh a symbol for their didn’t like two symbols they were g: The Greek letter lambda seemed too obscure, and the pk triangle that the Nazis had forced gay prisoners their ncentratn mps to wear was too dark. “Gilbert’s ia was to create somethg that reflects the diversy of the LGBT muny, ” Jon, the first openly gay San Francis supervisor, urged Baker to e up wh a symbol of hope, acrdg to Baker’s onle the cy’s Gay Freedom Day Para 1978, Milk ro unr the first rabow flags sewn by Baker, and dyed by him and Jon. The six simple panels of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple would bee a universal bean of pri for gay and transgenr 1979, Baker went to work at Paramount Flag San Francis and created “flamboyant wdow displays, ” acrdg to his onle bgraphy.

THE ORIG OF THE GAY MEN’S PRI FLAG AND ITS MEANG

Senator, saw them and missned him to sign flags for her first gural as liked to joke that he was the “gay Betsy Ross. ”He moved to New York 1994 and created a e-long rabow flag to memorate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, wily viewed as the start of the gay liberatn did fe art silk screens on len celebratg the flag, and worked wh photographers to document .

San Francis cy supervisor, Harvey Milk and Gay rights activist, Cleve Jon, approached Gilbert Baker about creatg a potential symbol. The Rabow Flag is the symbol of the ternatnal Gay Pri movement and will be proment fixture Gay Pri paras and ftivals this weekend across the untry and Chigo.

UNY AND RISTANCE: THE HISTORY BEHD THE GAY PRI FLAG

In 1978, the San Francis Gay and Lbian Pri Para missned Baker to e up wh a new symbol that uld be ed year after year.

That's how he met and beme iends wh Harvey Milk, who beme the first openly-gay elected supervisor of San Francis 1977. The Rabow Flag has bee the ternatnal symbol of the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr movement and is arguably one of the most regnizable symbols the world.

Dpe progrs on many onts cludg gay marriage and Don't Ask Don't Tell, Baker said the LGBT muny has much more work to do. He was statned as a medic San Francis at the begng of the gay rights movement and lived there as an openly gay man. After his honourable discharge om the ary, he worked on the first marijuana legalisatn iative 1972 and was tght to sew by his fellow activist Mary ed his skill to create banners for gay rights and anti-war prott march.

It was durg this time that he met and beme iends wh Harvey Milk (an Amerin polician and the first openly gay elected official the history of California) and Sisters of Perpetual IndulgenceCleve Jon, the activist and thor of “When We Rise, ” first met Baker the 1970s. ”As the ’70s passed, the styl for men San Francis’s gay muny beme more tied to tradnal notns of masculy, and drag too was phed to the margs.

Instead of genr-illn, “pretty” drag, Baker’s humoro approach was revolutnary both executn and also joed the gay drag activist and performance group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence where men drs nuns’ habs and take psdo-relig nam. It was found San Francis 1979 by Ken Bunch, Bill Graham, Fred Bngard and Edmund Garron partially rponse to what they saw as the homogenizatn of the gay muny, (the procs of makg thgs uniform or siar) joed the orr 1981, takg the name Sister Chanel 2001, and was a member until 1983. In the years followg the Harvey Milk assassatn, durg the rise of the AIDS epimic, gay muni San Francis and other ci were a equent target of protts by right-wg relig groups, and the relig groups were an equally equent unter-prott target of the scribed his first public outg:“My first required appearance began when Sister Boom Boom and Sister Krishna Kosher planned a rally at Unn Square.