Baker, creator of gay rights flag, dies at 65
Print Edition
GILBERT Baker, the creator of the rainbow flag that has become a widely recognized symbol of gay rights has died. He was 65.
Baker was found dead on Friday at his New York City home. The medical examiner’s office said that he had died of hypertensive heart disease.
Baker was born in Kansas and served in the US Army from 1970 to 1972. He was stationed in San Francisco in the early days of the gay rights movement and continued to live there after his honorable discharge.
According to Baker’s website, he taught himself to sew and began making banners for gay and anti-war marches, creating the rainbow flag in 1978.
Baker said in a 2008 interview that he knew instantly from the way people reacted to the flag that it was “going to be something. I didn’t know what or how ... but I knew.”
Baker was part of a circle of San Francisco gay activists that included Harvey Milk, the city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978, and Cleve Jones, who created the Names Project AIDS memorial quilt in the 1980s.
The flag was initially eight colors, but it was cut to six because of the limited availability of fabrics, Jones said.
He said Baker rejected advice to patent the rainbow flag design and never made a penny off it.
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