Drag and Sisters of Perpetual IndulgenceĬleve Jones, the activist and author of “When We Rise,” first met Baker in the 1970s. It was during this time that he met and became friends with Harvey Milk (an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California).
He used his skill to create banners for gay rights and anti-war protest marches. After his honourable discharge from the military, he worked on the first marijuana legalisation initiative in 1972 and was taught to sew by his fellow activist Mary Dunn. 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. His father was a judge and his mother was a teacher.īaker’s sister, Ardonna Baker Cook, remembers Gilbert as an artistic child who loved to paint and spent “nights reading under his covers with a flashlight.”īaker was drafted into the United States Army at 19 and served 2 years from 1970 to 1972. He grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his grandmother owned a women’s clothing store.
Gilbert Baker was born on 2nd June 1951, in Chanute, Kansas.
