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In late August 2019, Beal was contacted by James Ferrigan, a world-renowned flag expert who had worked with Baker in the late 1970s at the Paramount Flag Company in San Francisco. After the parade, the flag fragment was folded up and stored in Beal’s Greenwich Village home, Beal said.īut a chance phone call from a stranger alerted Beal to the amazing backstory to this ragged piece of cloth.Īlix Dobkin, pioneering lesbian musician, dies at 80 The Foundation carried the fragment in the Stonewall 50 parade, also oblivious to its identity. She mailed the Foundation the 1978 flag fragment, not knowing its provenance. Two years later, the Gilbert Baker Foundation was looking for a large flag to carry in the June 2019 Stonewall 50 Pride Parade in New York City.īeal asked Cook if she would loan a large flag from Baker’s Belongings. When Baker died unexpectedly in 2017, this original flag piece was among boxed possessions that were given to his sister, Ardonna Cook. This fragment secretly remained in his possession for decades, said Charles Beal, president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation.
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He discovered that the flags, stored under a leaky roof, were badly mildewed, but managed to salvage a portion of one of the original eight-color flags. In June 1979, Gilbert had planned to retrieve the original flags from storage at the San Francisco Gay Community Center. Using color to establish meaning, Baker conceived a flag that would empower his “tribe” and a “rainbow of humanity” motif to represent the community’s diversity.īaker assigned symbolic meaning to each of the flag’s eight colored stripes: Kay Tobin Lahusen, pioneering lesbian & gay rights activist, dies at 91 In 1978, while preparing for that year’s Gay Freedom Day celebration, City Supervisor Harvey Milk and other local activists appealed to Baker, the co-chair of the decorations committee, to create a new symbol for the LGBTQ community to be unveiled at the June event. He quickly became well known for his sewing skills and flamboyant creations, such as drag costumes and political banners for street demonstrations.
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Thought to have been lost for over 40 years, the fragment is the only known surviving remnant of the two inaugural rainbow flags.īaker arrived in San Francisco in 1972 during the early years of the Gay Liberation movement. Displaying the original design’s eight colored stripes, it was created by Baker and hand-stitched and dyed with the help of volunteers and friends, including Lynn Segerblom (Faerie Argyle Rainbow), James McNamara, Glenne McElhinney, Joe Duran, and Paul Langlotz. In April, the GLBT Historical Society received an archival donation, a fragment of one of the two monumental rainbow flags. Though in the recent years, members of the community have modified the flag with a chevron along the hoist that features black, brown, light blue, pink, and white to represent people of color and the transgender community.īaker worked tirelessly to ensure that the rainbow flag would become a universally recognized, global emblem of the LGBTQ community and its proud legacy. In 1979, the hot pink stripe was dropped due to the unavailability of flag fabric in this color.īaker also removed the turquoise stripe to create an even number of stripes for display on each side of the streetlamps on Market Street for the Gay Freedom Day parade.Īs a result, the six-stripe variant of the flag was born. The initial 30-feet-high by 60-feet-wide flag design featured eight colors, but underwent several revisions due to cost and display considerations. Garden Grove approves Pride flag but not at City Hall “We trust that its message of diversity, liberation and hope will continue to inspire queer people for generations to come.” “We are deeply grateful that Gilbert Baker saved this fragment, and that it has been brought home to San Francisco,” they said. In a joint statement, Charley Beal, president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, and Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society said, “For LGBTQ people, there are few artifacts that carry the historic, political, and cultural significance of this seminal work of art, the original rainbow flag. It will be the centerpiece of the exhibition “ Performance, Protest and Politics: The Art of Gilbert Baker.” Photo: Matthew Leifheit, courtesy of the Gilbert Baker Foundation. On Friday, a remnant of one of the original Pride flags was added to the Gilbert Baker Collection at the GLBT Historical Society Museum and Archives in San Francisco.