An ordinance to landmark the late gay artist Gilbert Baker's oversized rainbow flag installation in the Castro neighborhood without allowing variant or alternative flags at the site will be heard at a committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors next week.
The new ordinance was first introduced by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman on June 25, just days before the city's LGBTQ Pride parade. That followed a meeting of the historic preservation commission in May where it was revealed that under the original ordinance other flags would be allowed to be flown on the flagpole.
"Gilbert Baker's Rainbow Flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza is a glorious physical representation of Pride, a political artwork, and an internationally-recognized symbol of queer liberation," Mandelman stated to the B.A.R. July 23. "It is past time for the installation to win landmark status, and I am looking forward to presenting this landmarking ordinance to the land use committee and the full board."
Once the matter is heard by the land use committee Monday, July 29, it will be referred to the full board. Mandelman said his goal is to have the supervisors take their first vote July 30. Because it's an ordinance, it will need to come back to the supervisors for a second vote in early September, after the board's summer recess.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the city's historic preservation commission unanimously approved landmarking plans in May. But under its proposed ordinance, flags other than the rainbow banner could be flown. During a discussion at their May 15 meeting, the commissioners talked about what procedures would have to be followed for that to happen. The installation is located inside Harvey Milk Plaza, seen as the front door to the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Mandelman stressed to the B.A.R. that his new ordinance does not allow for that. His intention is to landmark the six-stripe rainbow flag popularized by Baker.
Planning Department staff member Moses Corrette said back in May that some in the community wanted other flags flown from the flagpole from time to time, mentioning the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and said the original proposed ordinance made a provision for a certificate of appropriateness to allow that to happen.
Cultural district director Tina Aguirre declined a request to comment on that matter in May, but stated they support the landmarking.
Aguirre reiterated to the B.A.R. July 23 that the district is supportive of the landmarking effort with the change that Mandelman is proposing.
"Our work is to counter measures that erase queer and trans people, places, and culture, especially in the Castro," Aguirre stated. "While we would have appreciated an opportunity to have the Progressive Pride flown, we acknowledge that Gilbert Baker's flag plays a key role in the world and remains a powerful signal that San Francisco is a haven for us. We honor Gilbert Baker and the Pride flag."
The Progress Pride flag refers to a variation of the rainbow flag that includes a chevron of black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes that specifically represent people of color and the trans community. It was designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018.
Baker, who died in 2017, had long insisted his flag represented everyone, saying, "what I liked about the rainbow is that it fits all of us. It's all the colors. It represents all the genders. It represents all the races. It's the rainbow of humanity."
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Baker co-created the first rainbow flag with friends Lynn Segerblom, a straight ally who now lives in Southern California, and James McNamara, a gay man who died of AIDS-related complications in 1999. Baker and his friends came up with a rainbow flag design that had eight colored stripes, with one version also sporting a corner section of stars to mimic the design of the American flag. It debuted at the 1978 San Francisco Pride parade.
"It really is a three-person, not a one-person, flag making. Everybody played their part and then some," Segerblom told the B.A.R. in a 2018 phone interview from her home in Torrance, southwest of Los Angeles.
Baker would go on to eliminate the stars and reduce the number of colored stripes to six. Over the ensuing years, Baker turned that standard six-color banner into an international symbol of LGBTQ rights.
Baker died unexpectedly in 2017 at the age of 65, and the foundation created in his name donated a segment from one of the first rainbow flags that flew in front of San Francisco City Hall during the 1978 parade to the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro, where it is now on public display.
In 2022, as the B.A.R. previously reported, the Gilbert Baker Foundation had hired architectural historian Shayne Watson, a lesbian who is an expert on the city's LGBTQ history, to conduct research on how the flagpole came to be as a first step toward declaring it a city landmark.
The foundation's president, Charley Beal, a gay man, told the B.A.R. July 23 that landmarking the flag is crucial — other municipalities have banned flying the flag on public property amid a backlash to the LGBTQ community in recent years. Two Sunol school board members were recalled this month, partly due to their banning the Pride flag being flown on the grounds of the East Bay school district, as the B.A.R. was first to report online July 18.
"In July alone, five towns across America have banned the rainbow flag," Beal stated to the B.A.R. "That brings the total bans to over 50. Even worse, a proposed ban on flying the rainbow flag on federal property has been introduced in Congress.
"In the face of this mounting homophobia, it is imperative that the Board of Supervisors and mayor of San Francisco grant immediate landmark status to the Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag Art Installation at Harvey Milk Plaza," he added. "It is time to make sure that this beacon of liberation and hope will always fly high above the city in which it was created."
The Castro Merchants Association is the current custodian of the flag. Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is president of the merchants group, said during the May hearing that it was a personal request made of her by the late Tom Taylor — who'd been the flag's custodian until his 2020 death but who'd been assisted by the merchants in his final years — that the one six-color oversized rainbow flag be flown at the site 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Baker also intended that his giant banner be the only one flown.
Asten Bennett told the B.A.R. on July 22, "I am very happy to see this moving forward."
"It is so important that this historic symbol of hope and belonging be preserved," she stated. "I am proud to be a steward of Gilbert Baker's rainbow flag. This amazing piece of artwork that Gilbert Baker created for the Castro, San Francisco and the world should be maintained as he intended, a six-color oversized Rainbow Flag flown at full mast 365 days a year."
The merchants group started a program last year to donate retired oversized flags to nonprofit organizations that have a mission aligned with promoting LGBTQ+ rights and fostering diversity, equality, and inclusivity.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee will hear the matter at its meeting Monday, July 29, at 1:30 p.m. at City Hall. That committee consists of District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, chair; District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, vice chair; and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who is District 3 supervisor and a candidate for mayor this year.
Updated, 7/24/24: This article has been updated with information on when the Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the proposed ordinance.
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