And he chose deliberately not to trademark it. “Gilbert Baker dedicated his life subsequently to using the flag to propel the LGBTQ+ rights movement forward. “People are moved to tears because of how important and significant that first flag-flying in 1978 was to them,” Beswick adds. Plans for a national tour are in the works, but he considers it to be “repatriated”. The rainbow flag is entirely new and positive, having been born out of hope and optimism.”Ĭalling the flag a “gay Shroud of Turin”, Beswick states that discussions over where it ought to reside took more than a year. “The pink triangle is a remnant from one of the darkest chapters in human history.
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They are “the yin-yang of the LGBTQ+ community, at opposite ends of the positive-negative spectrum”, says Patrick Carney, creator of the pink triangle display. Photograph: James McNamara/Courtesy of Mick Hicks A segment from this flag was donated in April to the GLBT Historical Society’s museum in San Francisco. Volunteers hoist one of the two original rainbow flags in 1978. In 2021, for the first time, the giant pink triangle installed on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks every Pride month will be illuminated with 2,700 LED lights each night. They were removed because hot-pink dye was hard to come by and because seven stripes was cumbersome to reproduce, front-and-back.īefore its creation – and later the dozens of variations signifying various subgroups within the overall LGBTQ+ umbrella, from trans people to bisexuals to the agender community – the best-known emblem of queerness was the pink triangle, a reclaimed symbol from Nazi Germany’s persecution of gay men.īoth symbols have taken on extra visibility and resonance this year. Unlike the six-color Pride flags of today, the original included pink and turquoise stripes. Photograph: Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Collection (1993-11), GLBT Historical Society.īut after examining its grommets, stitching and dye, a vexillologist (or flag expert) gauged its age and determined that it probably came from San Francisco’s Paramount Flag Company, where Baker worked in the late 1970s and early 80s. The two rainbow flags can be seen flying in the distance. “I actually saw a picture that showed a placard saying it was a replica,” Beswick said, comparing it to historical reproductions used in films like Milk or When We Rise.Ī view from the stage in front of San Francisco City Hall at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade. When Charley Beal, president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, contacted Baker’s sister on the eve of Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, she passed along the flag and marchers carried it at New York Pride in 2019, all unaware of its history.
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Upon his death in 2017, friends cleared out Baker’s apartment and shipped most of his effects to a sister in Texas, with some memorabilia sent to the GLBT Historical Society. Baker, Beswick adds, took the flag with him when he moved to New York in 1994 to execute a mile-long flag exhibit for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Its brief prominence in San Francisco is all the more poignant considering that 1978 was the only year that supervisor Harvey Milk marched in the parade he would be assassinated five months later. The remnant we have now, it’s about 28 ft along the hoist and 10 to 12 ft of the fly – still quite large and beautiful.”
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Gilbert went back to retrieve them and took this one and cut off the damaged portion. It sustained water damage and it had mildew on it. “Who knows, maybe it’ll turn up someday,” Beswick said. Measuring 60 ft by 30 ft, the two flags – one with stripes in the style of the American flag, and this one without – were later displayed and stored at a now-shuttered LGBTQ+ community center, where one was stolen. Photograph: Mark Rennie/Courtesy of the Gilbert Baker Foundation The two original eight-color rainbow flags flying at United Nations Plaza in 1978 during San Francisco Gay Freedom Day.