June 2 marks Gilbert Baker ’s natal day , and although you might not know his name , you ’re almost certainly conversant with his most enduring share : the rainbow flag that ’s become synonymous with the LGBT rights front .
Baker — who is being honored with aGoogle Doodletoday — wasbornin Chanute , Kansas in 1951 . After a stint in the Army , he locate in San Francisco , which had visit itself transmute into a biotic community that both welcome and plunk for civil rights for women and other under - represented segment of society . Because Baker hadtaught himselfto tailor , friends would often ask if he could create something that could be identified with the rising telephone number of valet who were come out of the W.C. in San Francisco and elsewhere . For protests and marches , biotic community members wanted a symbolization to help intercommunicate the idea of a merged stand .
Some earlier banners had used a pinkish triangle , a reclaiming of the same symbol used by nazi to identify gay humanity in concentration ingroup during World War II . In 1978 , prominent cheery rights advocate Harvey Milk involve Baker for an original allegory . With the help of volunteers , Baker filled several shabu cans with dye , dip fabric , and emerge with a rainbow flag with eight stripes .
Although Baker could refer to its creation with some levity — he once scream himself the “ gay Betsy Ross”—it was clear that he was touch by how deep the flag had embedded itself into the fabric of civil rights . “ What the rainbow has given our people is a thing that connects us , ” he once pronounce . “ I can go to another country , and if I see a rainbow flag , I sense like that ’s someone who is a kindred spirit or [ that it ’s ] a secure place to go . It ’s sort of a language , and it ’s also proclaiming power . ”
The flag went on to become ubiquitous , with Baker — who died in March 2017 at age 65 — credited with creating an iconic visual that could communicate the need for margin in an instant . In 2003 , he helped with the introduction of the big LGBT flag ever , one that covered more than a Swedish mile of Key West . When gay wedlock was legalized by the Supreme Court in 2015 , more than 26 million Facebook users change their visibility image to include the flag ’s innovation . And in 2015 , the Museum of Modern Art inducted it into its excogitation collection .
