Gilbert Baker

Anita Bryant had the effect of galvanizing the whole gay movement. She was somebody whom everybody could hate. She was easy to hate. ”

Harvey Milk was a friend of mine, an important gay leader in San Francisco in the '70s, and he carried a really important message about how important it was to be visible, how important it was to come out, and that was the single most important thing we had to do. ”

I love going to cities around the world and seeing the rainbow flag, knowing that it's a safe place where I can be myself. ”

My parents and I didn't speak for 10 years. It took a long time to rebuild that relationship. ”

The rainbow flag is beautiful because it's about love. The Confederate flag is ugly because it's about hate. It's pretty simple from the art level: beautiful versus ugly. ”

I came out because I fell in love. It wasn't a terrible, horrible, damn thing. I was in love with somebody, and I wanted to scream it from the rooftops. ”

When I fell in love, all the shame and guilt I carried with me for years suddenly vanished. ”

Anita Bryant is an important figure in gay history because she enraged a generation of people who got active. ”

You don't have to live a lie. Living a lie will mess you up. It will send you into depression. It will warp your values. ”

I decided that we should have a flag, that a flag fit us as a symbol, that we are a people, a tribe if you will. And flags are about proclaiming power, so it's very appropriate. ”