It will be featured as the centerpiece of " Performance, Protest and Politics: The Art of Gilbert Baker," an ongoing exhibition about the activist's life and work. The rare fragmentpresumed lost for more than four decadesresurfaced last year, writes Peter-Astrid Kane for the Guardian. Per a statement, its creators included queer artists Gilbert Baker, Lynn Segerblom and James McNamara, as well as more than 30 volunteers. Now an internationally recognized symbol of LGBTQ pride and civil rights, the rainbow flag design was conceived by a group of activists in San Francisco in 1978. Earlier this month, the GLBT Historical Society Museum unveiled a glass case containing a rare artifact: a segment of the original rainbow gay pride flag, its colors as vibrant as ever. June 2021 Smithsonian Magazine article Long-Lost Fragment of First Rainbow Pride Flag Resurfaces After Four Decades The brilliantly colored bannernow on view in San Franciscoflew on "Gay Freedom Day" in 1978Ī priceless piece of queer history has returned home to San Francisco, reports Ezra David Romero for KQED.
![old gay pride flag old gay pride flag](https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/03/19/16/newFile-7.jpg)
As Baker recounted, “the second it hit the wind, it changed my life forever.” For Baker, the rainbow flag was always a statement about human rights. The first rainbow flag was raised in 1978. Reflecting on the American bicentennial in 1976, Baker began to think about what kind of symbol might best represent his community.
![old gay pride flag old gay pride flag](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/1610475/rainbow-flag-pride-flag-lgbtq-flag.jpg)
The pink triangle was a badge used in concentration camps to mark those convicted under Paragraphs 174, 175 and 176 of the Reich Penal Code, which outlawed any same‐sex acts of intimacy.īut, Baker reasoned, their movement did need a symbol.
OLD GAY PRIDE FLAG CODE
It came from Hitler’s regime as part of a code of oppression and murder. For them, the pink triangle was the wrong symbol. Baker, along with many others, rejected the old symbol of the gay community – the pink triangle. Harvey Milk 1, who was a close friend of Baker’s, often called upon him to create banners for protest marches. That’s when San Francisco called.Īfter learning to sew on a friend’s machine, Baker began to make banners – lots of them.
![old gay pride flag old gay pride flag](https://static.independent.co.uk/2021/06/10/19/Intersex-flag-590x370-1.png)
But medicine, he discovered, did not allow him to be creative. Drafted into the United States Army at 19, he set his sights on studying medicine.
![old gay pride flag old gay pride flag](https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/1d6e3ad8-d94d-46ff-867a-fdb1fe790924/svn/anley-house-flags-a-flag-sunsetlesold-64_600.jpg)
After completing high school, Baker was ready to leave it all behind.