NID H
I
ENOY H S
02 “STA ND !”
BY
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SL
Y&
ILY FAM THE
STONE, 1969
STAND! I N TH E E N D Y OU 'LL ST ILL B E Y OU O N E TH A T ’S DON E ALL T H E T H IN G S Y OU S E T O U T T O DO STAND! F O R TH E T H IN G S Y OU K N OW AR E R IG H T I T ’ S TH E T R U T H T H AT T H E T R U T H M AK ES T H E M S O U P T IG H T STAND! A L L T H E T H IN G S Y OU WAN T AR E R EAL STAND! D O N ’ T Y O U K N OW T H AT Y OU AR E FR EE W E L L A T LEAST IN Y OU R M IN D IF Y OU WANT TO BE F R O M TH E OR IG IN AL ST ON EWALL C LU B J U K EB OX
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“ It was a safe place for us.
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When you walked in the door of Stonewall, you could hold hands, you could kiss and, more importantly, you could dance.”
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08 RY
OF
A A G
OMIC BOMB Y AT ’’
“W I T H A L L
TH
E
FU
8
Stonewall Inn On June 28, 1969, when the police raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street for ‘’violation of liquor laws,’’ its gay patrons fought back for the first time. Instead of dispersing, they taunted the police officers and hurled objects at them. The battle for the streets was joined on subsequent nights by hundreds of protesters, ‘’with all the fury of a gay atomic bomb,’’ as The Daily News reported at the time.
They began to jeer at and jostle the police and then threw bottles and debris. Accustomed to more passive behavior, even from larger gay groups, the policemen called for reinforcements and barricaded themselves inside the bar while some 400 people rioted. The police barricade was repeatedly breached, and the bar was set on fire. Police reinforcements arrived in time to extinguish the flames, and they eventually dispersed the crowd. The riots outside the
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Stonewall Inn waxed and waned for the next five days. Many historians characterized the uprising as a spontaneous protest against the perpetual police harassment and social discrimination suffered by a variety of sexual minorities in the 1960s.
COMIN
UT G O
IN
TO
TH
E
ST
REE
TS
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“ At one point, I felt like screaming, ‘I’m gay!’
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i n the middle of the street. That was unheard-of.”
012 A S YM
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Radical Revolution Stonewall soon became a symbol of resistance to social and political discrimination that would inspire solidarity among homosexual groups for decades. Acceptance and respect from the establishment were no longer being humbly requested but angrily and righteously demanded. The broad-based radical activism of many gay men and lesbians in the 1970s eventually set into motion a new, nondiscriminatory trend in government policies and helped educate society regarding this significant minority.
OL
RE OF
SIST
ANCE
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“ Let it forever be remembered that here, on this spot, men and women stood proud,
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they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose and love whom our hearts desire.”
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AK
RAG A D
QUEEN “B UST Y
Gilbert Baker
RO
SS
O ,” A Y R S T LLUDI NG TO BE
Baker was born in Kansas in 1951, and suffered while growing up in a conservative state. He was drawn to art and fashion design as a child, which alienated him from peers. He hoped that being drafted into the US Army would be his escape, but he encountered severe homophobia during his time in basic training. When he opted to become a medic, Gilbert was stationed in San Francisco. There he found a home as an openly gay man, thriving in the counterculture movement of the post-Stonewall era. After completing his military service, Gilbert used his artistic talents in his political efforts, creating banners for anti-war and pro-gay marches and protests. At the suggestion of friends and colleagues, including San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, Gilbert began work on the creation of a new symbol for the gay and lesbian political movement.
SS
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ZI
PR
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N SO
ER
MARK
PREVIO
USL
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NA
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The Need for a New Symbol At the time, the most commonly used image for the burgeoning gay rights movement was the pink triangle. The pink triangle first appeared in Nazi Germany as a prisoner marking used in Hitler’s concentration camps during WWII. The triangles were fabric badges sewn onto one’s outer garments,
color categorizing inmates by “kind.” Though reclaimed as symbols of pride and solidarity for the LGBTQ community, using a symbol with such a dark and painful past was never an option for Baker.
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“ The pink triangle is not a flag – it’s a stigma put on us by Hitler. No thank you.
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We needed something joyful, we needed something with soul, something that was living, something positive.”
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Creating the Ubiquitous Rainbow PA
Baker drew inspiration from the US national flag, which had celebrated its bicentennial in 1976, and an actual rainbow, which displays the colors of the light spectrum in roughly the same sequence as the flag. He assigned a meaning to each of the colors: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic,
F HAVING A F LAG RT O
IS
TH
E D EPTH
IN ITS SY
O MB
LI
SM
blue for harmony and violet for spirit. With the help of close to 30 volunteers working in the attic of the Gay Community Center in San Francisco, Baker was able to construct the first draft of the now world-renowned rainbow flag. It was first showcased at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.
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“ We hand-dyed the fabric, so it was very organic. I sewed it in the Gay Community Center in this little gallery up there,
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and many, many people were involved. We ironed a thousand yards of fabric, it was a mess. It was a wonderous, beautiful, organic moment.”
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The Mile-Long Flag
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F
OUL OF TH THE S E P E
OP
L
“A TRUE
FLA
G
IS
N OR
M RO
E”
T
25
In 1994 Baker created the history making, mile-long Rainbow Flag for Stonewall 25 in New York to mark the 25th anniversary of the gay civil rights movement.
The Guinness Book of World Records recognized the mile-long Stonewall 25 Rainbow Flag as the world’s largest flag.
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“ If you are not personally free to be yourself in that most important of all human activities...
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the expression of love...then life itself loses its meaning.”
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Making History In 2013, Gilbert was asked to contribute a Rainbow Flag to the permanent collection at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The unveiling ceremony took place on June 26, the same day that the Supreme Court of the United States legalized gay marriage nationwide.
In the hours that followed, rainbow colors illuminated iconic structures globally, including the Sydney Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World, and The White House.
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“It’s a visibility tool. It’s not about a piece of fabric. It’s an action that people are taking.
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When they put the flag up on their house, they’re expressing themselves and saying this is who I am.”
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H 5T
1969
“AQUA RIU S
”B Y
T
HE
ION, ENS DIM
W H E N TH E M OON IS IN T H E SEV EN T H H O U S E A N D J U P IT ER ALIG N S WIT H M AR S T H E N P E AC E WILL G U IDE T H E P LAN ET S A N D L O V E WILL ST EER T H E ST AR S T H I S I S T H E DAWN IN G OF T H E AG E OF AQUARIUS H A R M O N Y AN D U N DER ST AN DIN G S Y M P A TH Y AN D T R U ST AB OU N DIN G N O M O R E FALSEH OODS OR DER ISION S G O L D E N LIV IN G DR EAM S OF V ISION S M Y S T I C C R Y ST AL R EV ELAT ION A N D TH E M IN D’S T R U E LIB ER AT ION
F R O M TH E OR IG IN AL ST ON EWALL C LU B J U K EB OX
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This book was designed, illustrated, and compiled by Nidhi Shenoy for “Beginning Graphic Design” taught by Ali Tomek at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Spring 2021.