“In a moment when the struggle for human rights of all kinds seems to be rolling backward, the revolutionary acts necessary to move forward again will demand collaboration,” Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who wrote the book’s foreword, tells NewNowNext.
The timing of the book, too, could not be more poignant. The hard work paid off: Rainbow Warrior is a vital volume for anyone whose life has been touched by Baker’s design-and by this point, that’s virtually every LGBTQ person on the planet.
In an afterword to Rainbow Warrior, Charley Beal, manager of creative projects for the Gilbert Baker estate, describes the project as a “massive editing job,” one that took journalist Jay Blotcher months to complete. However, Baker’s writing tapered off significantly after he suffered a 2012 stroke, and he ultimately left his memoirs unfinished.įortunately, just in time for Stonewall50, Baker’s friends assembled his multiple drafts into a cohesive manuscript. He devoted special attention to his often-contentious friendship with fellow LGBTQ activist Cleve Jones, whose book When We Rise covers a similar time period. Most of Baker’s extant writing focused on his creation of a world record-setting, mile-long version of the rainbow flag for the 1994 Stonewall25 rally in New York City. “You have to give them hope,” Milk had said-and Baker took that message to heart.īut Baker’s life story had to be stitched together from various drafts of his autobiography left behind when he passed away in 2017 at the age of 65. Milk was assassinated the following year, prompting Baker to sew even more rainbow flags for the 1979 parade in San Francisco, even though, as the artist writes, “everybody was ready to paint it black.” wanted a more joyous symbol than the Holocaust-era pink triangle to represent the fight for equality. In 1978, Baker sewed the first rainbow flag-which had eight colors instead of six-in large part because legendary gay rights leader Harvey Milk and filmmaker Artie Bressan Jr. The rainbow flag, after all, was created at a pivotal turning point in LGBTQ history.
Published earlier this month, Rainbow Warrior is as colorful as Baker’s most famous creation, full of resplendent anecdotes about the early decades of LGBTQ activism.
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Baker at a Pride event in 2013.