We’re just starting Pride Month, so you’ll see plenty of rainbow flags — and as it happens, Gilbert Baker, who was born June 2, 1951, designed that flag.
He was born in Kansas, and ended up in San Francisco when he was in the US Army — he was stationed there as a medic. After his discharge in 1972 he stayed there, and that’s when he started with flags. He had learned to sew, and began making banners for both gay-rights and anti-war protesters — those were the days when the US was fighting the Vietnam war.
He joined the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of gay drag activists, but left after realizing that publicity about the group was being used for right-wing fundraising.
In 1978 he designed the Rainbow Flag, which he refused to copyright. Around that time he began to work full-time on flags, working for the Paramount Flag Company. He designed flags and banners for everyone from the heads of state of China, Venezuela, France, Spain, and more, and in 1984 designed all the flags for the US Democratic Party convention (there are a LOT of flags at those things).
He moved to New York in 1994 and continued to design and make flags, including the largest flag in the world at the time. For the 25th anniversary of the Rainbow Flag in 2003, Baker created a new one that was…big. It stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. But before you envision a flag hundreds of miles long (ok, you probably already have), I should point out that the island of Key West, in Florida, marks the boundary between those bodies of water. The flag was still enormous, but it stretched only a bit more than a mile.
Baker continued to perform in drag occasionally, and thanks to his flag work, his stage name was “Busty Ross”. (The designer of the original US flag was Betsy Ross). Baker died of a heart attack in 2017, at 65. He’s been depicted in movies, commemorated in plaques (including in Paris), and of course the Rainbow Flag is still around. You can find out more about him at https://gilbertbaker.com/
