彩虹旗简史

In 1974, 当贝克遇到哈维·米尔克时，他的生活永远改变了, 谁向他展示了“行动如何创造改变”.“在他们相识三年后, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors – making him the first openly gay person to hold a high public office in a major American city. 米尔克曾被亲切地称为卡斯特罗街的市长., 为年轻的同性恋者传递希望的积极信息, 说, “他们唯一能期待的就是希望. 你必须给他们希望.“在赢得选举之后, Milk challenged Gilbert Baker to come up with a symbol of pride for the gay community – a positive alternative to the pink triangle. 粉红色的三角形, 曾被纳粹用来识别和迫害同性恋者, had been reclaimed in the 70s as a bold symbol of remembrance and action against persecution. It is still widely used, often alongside or superimposed upon the Rainbow Flag.

受到启发，贝克开始制作一面旗帜. 他自己给布料染色, 在志愿者的帮助下, stitched together eight strips of brilliant color into a huge banner that spoke volumes: hot pink stood for sexuality, 红色代表生命, 橙色治疗, 黄色代表太阳, 绿色为自然, 青绿色用于艺术, 靛蓝代表和谐，紫罗兰代表精神. 他清楚地记得新国旗第一次升起的那一刻:

“It all goes back to the first moment of the first flag back in 1978 for me. 把它举起来，看着它在风中飘扬，让每个人都看到. 让我完全震惊的是，人们刚刚得到了它, 一瞬间，像一道闪电——这就是他们的旗帜. 它属于我们所有人. 那是我一生中最激动人心的时刻. Because I knew right then that this was the most important thing I would ever do – that my whole life was going to be about the Rainbow Flag.”

A few of his handmade Rainbow Flags were flown in the 1978 “Gay Freedom Day” Parade in San Francisco (now called San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade). 很快，贝克找到派拉蒙旗帜公司，准备批量生产这些旗帜. 唉, 紫红色旗子织物不容易买到, 但派拉蒙开始销售七条纹版(红色), 橙色, 黄色的, 绿色, 蓝色的, 靛蓝和紫色). 根据一个消息来源, those flags were a surplus stock that had originally been made for the International Order of Rainbow for Girls, 年轻女性的共济会组织, but the Rainbow Flag was already recognized throughout San Francisco as a symbol of gay pride.

11月11日上午. 27, 1978, San Francisco received shocking news: Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk had been assassinated at City Hall. 悲伤和愤怒激起了贝博体彩app人——尤其是同性恋活动人士.

The Gay Freedom Day Committee (now called San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee) quickly decided that the Rainbow Flag should be flown from the light poles along both sides of Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. 他们把颜色分成两面旗帜, 在街道两侧交替飘扬三条旗. They eliminated the indigo stripe to make an even six colors, and flag production began.

That six-stripe Rainbow Flag was soon proudly flown outside many San Francisco homes and businesses. 事实上, 哪里需要骄傲和希望的象征, 彩虹出现在钥匙链上, 咖啡杯, t恤, 保险杠贴纸——你能想到的都有.

In 1988, 西好莱坞的约翰·斯托特, CA, sued his landlords for the right to display a Rainbow Flag on the balcony of his apartment. He won, as have many others since who have defended their right to display the Rainbow Flag. 最近，吉尔伯特·贝克说，

“国旗是一种行动——它不仅仅是布料和条纹. When a person puts the Rainbow Flag on his car or his house, they’re not just flying a flag. 他们正在采取行动.”

贝克继续为其他活动设计旗帜, including state visits to San Francisco by the President of Italy; the President of France; the Premier of China; the President of the Philippines; the President of Venezuela, 和西班牙国王. 他为1984年民主党全国代表大会设计了旗帜, 1985年超级碗, 贝博体彩app交响乐团黑白舞会, and stage and street decorations for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parades from 1979 through 1993. 1994年，贝克创造了历史, mile-long Rainbow Flag for Stonewall 25 in New York to mark the 25th anniversary of the gay civil rights movement. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized the mile-long Stonewall 25 Rainbow Flag as the world’s largest flag.

回忆起他职业生涯中的一个决定性时刻, 贝克说, “The moment I knew that the flag was beyond my own personal experience – that it wasn’t just something I was making but was something that was happening – was the 1993 March on Washington. From my home in San Francisco I watched the March on C-SPAN and saw hundreds of thousands of people carrying and waving Rainbow Flags on a scale I’d never imagined.”

Happy news: Hot pink is no longer a non-standard color in flag fabric production. Baker was recently able to create the world’s longest Rainbow Flag – restored to its original eight colors – to celebrate the flag’s silver anniversary. 彩虹号海对旗- 1.25英里长——于2003年6月15日在佛罗里达州的基韦斯特展开. Parts of the Flag will be shared with more than 100 cities around the world, 八条旗现在随处可见.