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Gay People's Chronicle Section B

PRIDE 2008

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Fabulous at 30

The flag of modern Pride celebrations has seen three decades of change

by Eric Resnick

"Flags are torn from the soul of the people," said rainbow flag designer Gilbert Baker on the symbol's 30th anniversary. "This one was born in

a moment of celebration."

When the rainbow flag debuted in San Francisco on June 25, 1978, Baker knew it was special, but had no idea it would become one of the most recognized symbols in the world.

That yea was the city's fifth annual Gay Freedom Day parade, which drew 240,000 375,000 participants, depending on whose estimates are to be believed. With the looming Briggs initiative-a ballot measure to ban gays and lesbians from working in California schools-and the election of the first openly gay city supervisor, Harvey Milk, eight months earlier, people came out.

"No other single political event of the decade drew such a crowd in San Francisco, if not the nation," according to Miik biographer Randy Shilts. "It was the signal event of the gay emergence in San Francisco during the late 1970s."

"Harvey Milk was a friend of mine," Baker said, "a teacher." "Harvey wanted a logo for the event," said Baker. "I wasn't sure about

a logo. A flag is a political symbol. It is an action."

Baker first came to San Francisco eight years earlier under another flag, that of the Army. He left his hometown of Chanute, Kansas when

Gilbert Baker designed 50 rainbow state flags in 2004 to promote voter participation.

he was drafted in 1970.

But he was afraid of guns and wouldn't pull the trigger of an M-16. Soon, he refused to even carry one.

Baker's captain in boot camp threatened to send him to Vietnam and put him on the front lines.

"You can, but I'm not going to carry a gun," Baker replied.

Finally, Baker agreed to be a medic. Another private shot for him at the range, to make it look like he qualified to pass basic training. The Army shipped him to the Presidio, a base at the northern tip of San Francisco. There, Baker began to discover the gay nightlife. Wrestling with his sexuality, Baker attempted suicide.

"After the Army I fell in love," said Baker, who decided to stay in San Francisco. "It was the first time I questioned the shame I grew up with in Kansas."

"God was on my side," Baker said. "Gay was good!"

"I met Harvey [Milk] around 1974 or 75," Baker said. "Harvey was smart, a regular guy, kind of a goof, but he had a star quality which allowed him to communicate."

"When Harvey spoke, you felt like your voice was going through him. He was a divine instrument, yet he was not aware of the kind of effect he had on people," Baker said.

"Harvey changed all of us."

Cotton and dye

From the time he was a child, Baker loved fashion. Today, at 57, he considers himself an artist. In the mid 1970s, he was sewing banners for Milk's political rallies.

MICK HICKS

Rainbow flag designer Gilbert Baker sewed the mile-long version used in the 1994 "Stonewall 25" parade.

"It took me longer to embrace being an artist than being gay," said Baker. "I wanted to be a doctor, but by the time I got through college. I hated medicine."

"But I was good with my hands, so I turned into sewing. It's how I plugged into the [gay] movement." Baker said. "Sewing was activism." Baker chaired the decorating committee for the 1978 Gay Freedom Day event and was given a budget of $1,000.

"We blew it on fabric and dye." Baker said.

"We filled a laundromat in the dead of night," Baker remembered. "You know, 'No dying.' We rinsed the machines with bleach when we were done so no one would get pink underwear."

"The original flags were made of real muslin cotton dyed in all-natural dyes," Baker said. "The fabric was thin, so when the sun hit them, they looked like silk."

Baker grows quiet recalling those first flags, which rotted from rain and have since been discarded.

"You gotta love the rainbow," Baker said. "It was a natural flag. It's found in nature. It was obvious. It expresses joy."

The two original flags, hand-stitched by Baker and 30 volunteers measured 40 feet by 60 feet and had eight stripes. Each color represented a component of the gay and lesbian community: hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit.

"It was sexy. It was beautiful. It was pretty," Baker said. The flag lost two stripes when Baker approached the Paramount Flag Company to manufacture flags for the 1979 parade. Hot pink material was not available for the mass-produced flags made of nylon, so that stripe was removed.

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