Viet Nam Human Rights
Father of LGBT's flag passed away in public memoirs
2/4/17
Gilbert
Baker, a San Francisco-based activist and artist best known for creating the
rainbow flag representing gay rights, has died at the age of 65.
“My
dearest friend in the world is gone. Clive Baker gave the world the rainbow
flag, he gave me forty years of love and friendship,” Cleve Jones, a longtime
friend, said on Twitter.
No
details were immediately available on the cause of Baker’s death or where he
died. According to the biography posted on his official website, he had been
living in New York City.
Jones
also tweeted a photo of Baker with President Obama, inviting mourners to meet
him under a rainbow flag in the Castro district of San Francisco on
Friday evening to remember his friend.
Baker,
who was born in Kansas in 1951, was stationed in San Francisco in the early
1970s while serving in the US Army, at the start of the gay rights movement.
According
to the website biography Baker began making banners for gay rights and anti-war
protests, often at the request of Harvey Milk,
who would become the first openly gay man elected to public office in
California when he won the 1977 race for a seat on the San Francisco board of
supervisors.
Milk
rode under the first rainbow flags made by Baker at the San Francisco Gay
Freedom Day Parade in June 1978, just months before the politician was murdered
by a former city supervisor, the biography says.
A
vigil in Baker's memory was planned Friday evening under the rainbow flag in
San Francisco's United Nations Plaza. The banner could be seen flying
half-staff from the balcony of Mayor Ed Lee.
"Gilbert
was a trailblazer for LGBT rights, a powerful artist and a true friend to all
who knew him. Our thoughts are with his friends and family. He will be
missed," Lee said in a statement.
The
iconic flag became the new symbol for the gay and lesbian community worldwide,
but has since then gone through some changes.
The
first flag had eight stripes: pink stood for sex, red for life, orange for
healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for
harmony and purple for spirit.
When
Baker began to mass produce the flag the following year, he had to drop two
colors. He ended up dropping the pink stripe, as it was too expensive to mass
produce, and turquoise, to go with an even number of colors./.
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All comments [ 2 ]
He is an honourable man who had paved the way for LGBT to step into the international community. Vietnam also commemorate him by promoting rights of LGBT's people in the country.
Tribute to what he had done for equality of LGBT among society!
Your comments