Grief and rage galvanized San Franciscans – especially gay activists. 27, 1978, San Francisco received shocking news: Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been assassinated at City Hall. According to one source, those flags were a surplus stock that had originally been made for the International Order of Rainbow for Girls, a Masonic organization for young women, but the Rainbow Flag was already recognized throughout San Francisco as a symbol of gay pride. Alas, fuchsia flag fabric was not readily available, but Paramount began selling a seven-striped version (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Soon, Baker approached the Paramount Flag Company to mass produce the flags. Because I knew right then that this was the most important thing I would ever do – that my whole life was going to be about the Rainbow Flag.”Ī few of his handmade Rainbow Flags were flown in the 1978 “Gay Freedom Day” Parade in San Francisco (now called San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade).
It was the most thrilling moment of my life. It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant like a bolt of lightening – that this was their flag. Raising it up and seeing it there blowing in the wind for everyone to see. “It all goes back to the first moment of the first flag back in 1978 for me. He remembers vividly the moment when his new flag was first raised: He dyed the fabrics himself and, with the help of volunteers, stitched together eight strips of brilliant color into a huge banner that spoke volumes: hot pink stood for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise blue for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit. It is still widely used, often alongside or superimposed upon the Rainbow Flag. The pink triangle, once imposed by Nazis to identify and persecute homosexuals, had been reclaimed in the 70s as a bold symbol of remembrance and action against persecution.
And you have to give them hope.” After winning the election, Milk challenged Gilbert Baker to come up with a symbol of pride for the gay community – a positive alternative to the pink triangle. Milk, once known fondly as the Mayor of Castro St., had campaigned on a positive message of hope for young gay people, saying, “The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. In 1974, Baker’s life changed forever when he met Harvey Milk, who showed him “how action could create change.” Three years after they met, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors – making him the first openly gay person to hold a high public office in a major American city. He learned to sew, making all the fabulous 70s clothes that he wanted but couldn’t buy.
#HOW MANY COLORS IN THE GAY PRIDE FLAG 1978 FREE#
After an honorable discharge, he stayed in San Francisco, free to pursue his dreams of being an artist. San Francisco has often been compared to Oz, but Baker didn’t want to click his heels and go back to Kansas. In 1970, a self-described “geeky kid from Kansas” named Gilbert Baker came to San Francisco as an Army draftee. The design came particularly handy as a victory banner after the historic decision of the Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriage in the US last week.“A true flag cannot be designed - it has to be torn from the soul of the people.” - Unknown Though versions of the rainbow flag are used by other causes, like the peace movement in Italy or as a symbol for the native peoples of the Andes region in South America-and there are other symbols in use like the transgender pride flag-but Baker’s Americana-inspired rainbow flag design remains the representative banner for LGBT people around the world. “We threw Clorox in afterwards hoping that the next customers weren’t walking out of there with pink underwear!” “We wait until everyone is gone late at night and run into a Laundromat and fill every machine with quarters and blast them all-and every color of the rainbow,” recalled Baker gleefully.
Baker and his conspirators even finished the dye process in a public laundromat, against regulations. He had about 30 volunteers to help him dye, stitch, and iron the cotton fabric for the original flags. Born in rural Kansas, Baker mastered sewing by making his own drag costumes.