Gilbert Baker

Um, I think specifically for this collection, so I've been thinking of it like a capsule collection, so there's six of them, and they're based off of, like, the colors of the rainbow.

So I was really looking at, uh, Gilbert Baker, who made the original pride flag in, like, the '70s I think it was, and he had actually taken, and originally it was eight colors.

I just went with six, 'cause it, eight's too many for me right now.

Um, but each one of them had, like, a, a meaning to them, vitality, uh, spirituality, creativity.

Through a- through all these years, we've had some incredible conversations about gay sex, dating, relationships, sexual health, and what it means to be gay men navigating this world.

And the funny thing is, I was looking for some significance behind the number eight in gay sexuality, and discovered that Gilbert Baker's original Pride flag i- from 1978 actually had eight colors.

Oh.

And the first one, hot pink, represented sex.

I'll drop a little vision on your podcast or whatever is our interview here.

I just had a great meeting this week with a lovely, lovely dude named Charlie Beal, who's the president or executive director of the Gilbert Baker Foundation.

Gilbert Baker is an amazing San Franciscan, more than I really realized.

He is the gentleman that in 1978, when we're Pride Weekend, the day, by the way, as a 17-year-old, I hitchhiked into San Francisco accidentally on Pride Weekend.

And at 17 years old, saw this wild city unfurling before me with Harvey Mudd, you know, and a sunroof going down Market Street.

That was the day he unveiled the rainbow flag on the world.

And Gilbert Baker's original intention, according to Charlie, and the things I've read, was that this was a symbol for all of humanity.

That the full spectrum was the full spectrum of humanity itself.

While symbols like these have fallen in and out of use, the pride flag has proven to be one of the strongest visual symbols for the LGBTQ+ community and is still in use today.

The pride flag was originally conceived by Gilbert Baker, an artist, activist, and performer originally from Kansas.

Baker was stationed in San Francisco during his time in the Army and later became an active member of the queer community after he left the service.

In 1978, Baker was commissioned by Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city supervisor who was openly gay, to design a new flag for the Gay Freedom Day celebration.

In 1985, Mayor Dianne Feinstein and the Board of Supervisors designated the intersection of Castro and Market Streets as Harvey Milk Plaza.

If you've been there, you know it's also an entrance to the Castro Muni station, and since 1997, the Castro's flagpole has proudly flown the rainbow flag that was designed by Gilbert Baker, another important San Francisco figure from queer history.

One important, uh, thing to point out about Harvey Milk Plaza is this is a, a designated memorial.

There's no thought of Harvey Milk that went into the design of this space, but rather Dianne Feinstein and the Board of Supervisors voted to apply Harvey's name to this space.

So I'm telling the gay youth people, they have the ability to actually make a difference.

But my number one pet peeve, and I'll end on this, is it pisses me off that 95% of the people I speak to do not know who Gilbert Baker is.

Gilbert Baker, who did the rainbow flag?

Absolutely.

They didn't even know it at the Stonewall Museum.

I was in the Stonewall Museum and I was saying to them about Gilbert Baker and they didn't even know who he was.

So if you want to know, get involved in the history.

Understand the different icons.

Our kindergartners can tell you what every color of the prize bag means, and this is how we celebrate 11 inclusion this month.

We started with the book sewing the rainbow, which is about Gilbert Baker, the person who actually designed the pride flag.

Then we learned about each of the meaning of the colors with the song, the meaning of pride from Nickelodeon.

Here are a lot more books that we read this week that turned into the conversation of what makes you special.