Zitat des Tages von Gilbert Baker:
I was astounded nobody had thought of making a rainbow flag before because it seemed like such an obvious symbol for us.
My parents and I didn't speak for 10 years. It took a long time to rebuild that relationship.
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.
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.
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.
Our movement is evolving. The movement to liberate our sexuality as a human right, that's an ongoing struggle.
Flags say something. You put a rainbow flag on your windshield, and you're saying something.
I was afraid my family would lock me up and give me electroshock. I was a screaming queen.
The rainbow flag is a symbol of freedom and liberation that we made for ourselves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Flags are about proclaiming power... that visibility is key to our success and to our justice.
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.
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.
