Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible - to live in the truth, as I say - to get out of the lie. Gilbert Baker More Quotes by Gilbert Baker More Quotes From Gilbert Baker The rainbow flag is beautiful because it's about love, we needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. Gilbert Baker top-news We're an ancient, wonderful tribe of people, we picked something beautiful. Gilbert Baker top-news We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that. Gilbert Baker top-news What the rainbow has given our people is a thing that connects us. Gilbert Baker us our rainbow people The rainbow flag is a symbol of freedom and liberation that we made for ourselves. Gilbert Baker flag rainbow freedom made A true flag is not something you can really design. A true flag is torn from the soul of the people. A flag is something that everyone owns, and that's why they work. The Rainbow Flag is like other flags in that sense: it belongs to the people. Gilbert Baker you soul work people I think the Rainbow Flag will survive forever, primarily because it's the perfect flag, regardless of whatever political meaning it may have or evolve to. Gilbert Baker think rainbow political perfect The rainbow is a part of nature, and you have to be in the right place to see it. It's beautiful, all of the colors, even the colors you can't see. That really fit us as a people because we are all of the colors. Our sexuality is all of the colors. We are all the genders, races, and ages. Gilbert Baker you nature beautiful people A rainbow is something in the sky, so a rainbow flag fits. Gilbert Baker flag something rainbow sky Flags are about proclaiming power... that visibility is key to our success and to our justice. Gilbert Baker key power justice success I came out because I fell in love. It wasn't a terrible, horrible, damn thing. I was in love with somebody, and I wanted to scream it from the rooftops. Gilbert Baker somebody out damn love You don't have to live a lie. Living a lie will mess you up. It will send you into depression. It will warp your values. Gilbert Baker live lie you depression In 1978, the first flag was organic everything. It did have eight colors: the six colors of the rainbow we see today plus hot pink and turquoise. But pretty quickly on I realized that I would never be able to satisfy the demand for them by hand-dying fabric and these colors. Gilbert Baker colors rainbow hot today I decided that we should have a flag, that a flag fit us as a symbol, that we are a people, a tribe if you will. And flags are about proclaiming power, so it's very appropriate. Gilbert Baker will you power people I love going to cities around the world and seeing the rainbow flag, knowing that it's a safe place where I can be myself. Gilbert Baker myself rainbow love world In 1978, when I thought of creating a flag for the gay movement, there was no other international symbol for us than the pink triangle, which the Nazis used to identify homosexuals in concentration camps. Even though the pink triangle was and still is a powerful symbol, it was very much forced upon us. Gilbert Baker pink thought gay powerful When I was young, they thought I was from outer space. I was the only gay person they probably knew, and they struggled with that. Everybody knew I was gay. They just didn't want to talk about it. Gilbert Baker person thought gay space The reason the rainbow flag endures is because people own it. It means something to them. Gilbert Baker flag own rainbow people Vexillography is a very big word! Vexillography is really the high science and art and understanding of flags and their history - the academic word for flag making and heraldry. Gilbert Baker understanding science history art Harvey Milk was a friend of mine, an important gay leader in San Francisco in the '70s, and he carried a really important message about how important it was to be visible, how important it was to come out, and that was the single most important thing we had to do. Gilbert Baker friend gay important leader
