Gilbert Baker
Gilbert Baker (June 2, 1951 – March 31, 2017), known as the gay Betsy Ross, is the creator of the Rainbow Flag. He designed the flag in San Francisco in 1978 as a positive alternative to the Pink Triangle -- a symbol first used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals.
Baker, born in Kansas in 1951, he grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his grandmother owned a women's clothing store. His father was a judge and his mother was a teacher. He arrived in San Francisco as an Army draftee in 1970. Like Dorothy in Oz, he found himself in a different and more colorful world. He dreamt of being an artist and, at the same time, fell in love with drag. He quickly learned to sew in order to create the costumes he couldn't afford to buy.
Baker served in the United States Army from 1970 to 1972. He was stationed as a medic in San Francisco at the beginning of the gay rights movement, and lived there as an openly gay man. After his honorable discharge from the military, he worked on the first marijuana legalization initiative California Proposition 19 (1972), and was taught to sew by his fellow activist Mary Dunn. He used his skill to create banners for gay-rights and anti-war protest marches. It was during this time that he met and became friends with Harvey Milk. He also joined the gay drag activist group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence stating, "At first it was glamorous and political, but when the Sisters became more organized, I became a tool of the right wing and raised money for Jerry Falwell", referring to video and images of the group that were used for right-wing Christian efforts, "so I stopped."
He came out of the closet in 1971 and received an Honorable Discharge from the Army in 1972. In 1975, he met activist and budding politico Harvey Milk, whom Baker credits with getting him involved in gay activism and with changing his life. Milk was elected as San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor on November 7, 1977.
Throughout the early 70's, Baker was known to work day and night sewing banners and creating bold visuals for gay protests and marches. When actress Anita Bryant publicly labeled all gay men child molesters in 1977, Harvey Milk convinced Baker to create a symbol that would call the gay movement to action.
Baker immediately got to work on the project, and, in the spirit of Betsy Ross, Baker hand-sewed and dyed the strips of fabric that would later become the Rainbow Flag.
| Hot pink | Sex | |
| Red | Life | |
| Orange | Healing | |
| Yellow | Sunlight | |
| Green | Nature | |
| Turquoise | Magic/Art | |
| Indigo | Serenity | |
| Violet | Spirit |
The Rainbow Flag first flew during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. Two eight-color Rainbow Flags, each measuring 30 feet by 60 feet, flew from the flagpoles at United Nations Plaza.
Baker first created the Rainbow Flag with a collective in 1978. He refused to trademark it, seeing it as a symbol that was for the LGBT community. In 1979, Baker began work at Paramount Flag Company in San Francisco, then located on the southwest corner of Polk Street and Post Street in the Polk Gulch neighborhood. Baker designed displays for Dianne Feinstein, the Premier of China, the presidents of France, Venezuela, and the Philippines, the King of Spain, and many others. He also designed creations for numerous civic events and San Francisco Gay Pride. In 1984, he designed flags for the Democratic National Convention.
In the wake of Harvey Milk's tragic assassination later that year (November 1978), Baker was moved to create a flag display for San Francisco's Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. When he discovered there was no fuchsia fabric readily available from commercial flag makers (he was creating far too many flags for the fabric to be hand-dyed), he simplified the Rainbow Flag by eliminating fuchsia and then turquoise in order to keep the flag design evenly balanced. The six-color flag gained popularity steadily. Baker then began working with the Paramount Flag Company in San Francisco to produce the first commercial Rainbow Flags in six colors.
Baker began designing flags for other events including State visits to San Francisco by: the President of Italy; the President of France; the Premier of China; the President of the Philippines; the President of Venezuela; and, the King of Spain. He designed flags for the 1984 Democratic National Convention, the 1985 Super Bowl, San Francisco Symphony Black and White Balls and stage and street decorations for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parades from 1979 through 1993. In 1994 Baker created the history making mile-long Rainbow Flag for Stonewall 25 in New York to mark the 25th anniversary of the gay civil rights movement. The "Guinness Book of World Records" then recognized the mile-long Stonewall 25 Rainbow Flag as the world's largest flag.
In 1994, Baker moved to New York City, where he lived for the rest of his life. Here, he continued his creative work and activism. That year he created the world's largest flag (at that time) in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots.
Baker has mounted exhibitions illustrating the history of the flag for World Pride Rome in 2000 and in 2002 he brought his exhibition to the New York City LGBT Community Center. In 2003 his work and historical collections were also presented in exhibits at both the LGBT Center and the Hormel Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.
On June 15, 2003 at The Flag’s Silver Anniversary: Rainbow25, presented by ABSOLUT VODKA, the Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag – the world’s longest Rainbow Flag - was unfurled in Key West, Florida. This world’s longest Rainbow Flag was sewn by Baker who restored it to its original eight colors. Parts of the Flag were shared with more than 100 cities around the world.
Gilbert Baker lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.
Baker died at home in his sleep on March 31, 2017 at age 65, in New York City. The New York City medical examiner's office determined cause of death was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Upon Baker's death, California state senator Scott Wiener said Baker "helped define the modern LGBT movement"
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