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“For me and, really, a whole generation of people, that was really a defining time,” Mr.
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San Francisco was then a center for the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and after a police raid in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, a gathering spot for gay New Yorkers, more people began coming out as gay. He served as a medic and was eventually stationed in San Francisco, where he remained after leaving the Army in 1972. Baker spent a year in college before he was drafted into the Army. Baker said he was outgoing growing up but had always thought of himself as an outcast because he was gay. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a lawyer and a judge. Gilbert Baker was born on June 2, 1951, in Chanute, Kan., a tiny rural town that was a stop on the Santa Fe Railway. Baker said, so it was removed, and turquoise and blue were combined into one color, royal blue. The flag itself has changed since 1978, going to six colors from eight. Baker to create an emblem to represent the movement. His creations, like others during that time, often included the pink triangle, which protesters had claimed as an icon after its initial use by the Nazis to identify gay men in concentration camps during World War II.īefore a gay pride parade in 1978 in San Francisco, Harvey Milk, a city supervisor and gay rights leader who was assassinated that year, joined others in asking Mr. Baker was often asked by friends aware of his creative talents to make banners for protests and marches. Baker had a stroke several years ago but had not been sick recently.Īs the gay rights movement spread from San Francisco and New York in the 1970s, Mr. He was 65.Ĭleve Jones, a friend and gay rights activist who confirmed the death, said that Mr. Gilbert Baker, a self-described “gay Betsy Ross” who in 1978 hand-dyed and stitched together eight strips of vibrantly colored fabric into a rainbow flag, instantly creating an enduring international symbol of gay pride, was found dead on Friday at his home in New York City.