His father was a judge and his mother was a teacher. īaker served in the United States Army from 1970 to 1972. He was stationed as a medic in San Francisco at the beginning of the gay rights movement, and lived there as an openly gay man.
After his honorable discharge from the military, he worked on the first marijuana legalization initiative California Proposition 19 (1972), and was taught to sew by his fellow activist Mary Dunn. He used his skill to create banners for gay-rights and anti-war protest marches. It was during this time that he met and became friends with Harvey Milk. He also joined the gay drag activist group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence stating, "At first it was glamorous and political, but when the Sisters became more organized, I became a tool of the right wing and raised money for Jerry Falwell", referring to video and images of the group that were used for right-wing Christian efforts, "so I stopped." īaker first created the Rainbow Flag with a collective in 1978. He refused to trademark it, seeing it as a symbol that was for the LGBT community.
In 1979, Baker began work at Paramount Flag Company in San Francisco, then located on the southwest corner of Polk Street and Post Street in the Polk Gulch neighborhood. Baker designed displays for Dianne Feinstein, the Premier of China, the presidents of France, Venezuela, and the Philippines, the King of Spain, and many others. He also designed creations for numerous civic events and San Francisco Gay Pride. In 1984, he designed flags for the Democratic National Convention. In 1994, Baker moved to New York City, where he lived for the rest of his life. Here, he continued his creative work and activism. That year he created the world's largest flag (at that time) in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. In 2003, to commemorate the Rainbow Flag's 25th anniversary, Baker created a Rainbow Flag that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean in Key West. After the commemoration, he sent sections of this flag to more than 100 cities around the world. Due to his creation of the rainbow flag, Baker often used the drag queen name "Busty Ross", alluding to Betsy Ross. īaker died at home in his sleep on Maat age 65, in New York City. The New York City medical examiner's office determined cause of death was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Upon Baker's death, California state senator Scott Wiener said Baker "helped define the modern LGBT movement". Legacy įrench memorial to Gilbert Baker, Place des Émeutes-de-Stonewall in Le Marais district of Paris.