Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color

by Gilbert Baker, Dustin Lance Black (Foreword by)

Overview

In 1978, Harvey Milk asked Gilbert Baker to create a unifying symbol for the growing gay rights movement, and on June 25 of that year, Baker’s Rainbow Flag debuted at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade. Baker had no idea his creation would become an international emblem of liberation, forever cementing his pivotal role in helping to define the modern LGBTQ movement. Rainbow Warrior is Baker’s passionate personal chronicle, from a repressive childhood in 1950s Kansas to a harrowing stint in the US Army, and finally his arrival in San Francisco, where he bloomed as both a visual artist and social justice activist. His fascinating story weaves through the early years of the struggle for LGBTQ rights, when he worked closely with Milk, Cleve Jones, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Baker continued his flag-making, street theater and activism through the Reagan years and the AIDS crisis. And in 1994, Baker spearheaded the effort to fabricate a mile-long Rainbow Flag—at the time, the world’s longest—to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City. Gilbert and parade organizers battled with Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the right to carry it up Fifth Avenue, past St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Today, the Rainbow Flag has become a worldwide symbol of LGBTQ diversity and inclusiveness, and its colorful hues have illuminated landmarks from the White House to the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House. Gilbert Baker often called himself the “Gay Betsy Ross,” and readers of his colorful, irreverent, and deeply personal memoir will find it difficult to disagree.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641601504
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/04/2019
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	451,477
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Artist Gilbert Baker created the first Rainbow Flag in 1978 and was a longtime LGBTQ, peace and AIDS activist. He died in 2017.

Table of Contents

Foreword Dustin Lance Black ix

1 A Bolt of Lightning 1

2 Dreaming of a Life Over the Rainbow 3

3 I Am Not a Homosexual 13

4 A Door Opens 23

5 Stitching a Rainbow 33

6 Victory and Backlash 51

7 Raining on My Parade 57

8 Life at the Clown Hotel 63

9 The Birth of Sister Chanel 2001 71

10 Bobbi Took Off His Socks 81

11 Working for the Enemy 87

12 Stoning the Pope 95

13 Rock Bottom and Rebel Rebirth 101

14 Pink Jesus and the Holy War 103

15 Spreading My Wings Ill

16 Dorothy Goes to Gotham 115

17 Defending the Rainbow 125

18 Russians, Bobbins, Flashbulbs, and Tears 131

19 The Winter of My Discontent 143

20 Clash of the Divas 153

21 An Affair to Remember, a Night to Forget 163

22 Last Shift at the Sequin Mine 167

23 A Bump in the Road 173

24 The Chiffon Rebellion 179

25 A Day in Court, a Night at Stonewall 189

26 A Magician, a Mile of Scarf, and a Pair of Scissors 199

27 The Hatchet Is Buried 215

28 Invisible, with Liberty and Justice for All 221

Epilogue: Gilbert Baker's Later Years 225

Acknowledgments 231

Editorial Reviews

"A moving, educative memoir from one of the innovators of the gay liberation movement.” —Kirkus Reviews


“With infectious charisma and unadulterated exhilaration, Gilbert Baker intertwines the history of the Rainbow Flag and of the LGBTQ movement with the narration of his own sinuous life. If a sense of urgency and necessity, serendipity, intuition, and talent are the ingredients of great design, this is the autobiography of an accidental design superstar.” —Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Architecture & Design, the Museum of Modern Art


“Gilbert Baker paved the way for LGBTQ activists around the world—myself included. As the openly gay and HIV-positive Speaker of the New York City Council, I owe my career and life to people like Gilbert Baker. I am grateful the world will finally get to read his story.”—Corey Johnson, Speaker of the New York City Council


“Gilbert Baker’s grand visions as an artist and activist entertained all who knew him and truly advanced the global LGBTQ movement. In creating the Rainbow Flag, he gave the world an iconic symbol. This powerful memoir is his final gift. He was my friend and ally in the struggle for equality and I loved him very much.” —Cleve Jones, activist, author of When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, and creator of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt

From the Publisher

Graham Halstead’s narration creates a window onto LGBTQ history in the U.S. Rainbow Pride flag creator Gilbert Baker’s posthumously published memoir, with a foreword by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, shares the events, internal politics, and people behind the now-ubiquitous symbol of the LGBTQ rights movement. Thoughtfully edited fragments are sewn into an engaging narrative that ranges from the 1970s through the 1990s. Halstead blurs the line between author and narrator as he ably adopts Baker’s conversational storytelling style. Born in Kansas during the 1950s, the man who would become known as “the gay Betsy Ross” made his way to San Francisco. Baker’s talents as a seamstress paired with his social activism are recounted as part of the 1978 Pride Day and the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2019 - AudioFile