19781776 Club
Gilbert Baker's rainbow flag rises over San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day parade for the first time
Eight stripes, hand-dyed and hand-stitched by thirty volunteers; Harvey Milk, who pushed Baker to make it, is in the crowd to see it fly.
San Francisco's gay rights movement had momentum but no flag — no single image to plant in the ground and say: we are here. On June 25, 1978, Gilbert Baker's eight-striped rainbow flag was unfurled at the city's Gay Freedom Day parade, hand-dyed and hand-stitched by thirty volunteers under a process developed by artist Lynn Segerblom. Harvey Milk, who had pressed Baker toward openness and visibility, was still alive to see it fly. Five months later, Milk was assassinated — and demand for the flag surged…
