Gilbert Baker Quotes

The rainbow flag is a symbol of freedom and liberation that we made for ourselves.

A rainbow is something in the sky, so a rainbow flag fits.

The reason the rainbow flag endures is because people own it. It means something to them.

I think the Rainbow Flag will survive forever, primarily because it's the perfect flag, regardless of whatever political meaning it may have or evolve to.

Queerness is the lens that I live my life through.

I'm honestly not the kind of person who wants to step up to a podium, test the microphone and be like, 'Hey, I'm homosexual and this is who I am, hear me roar.' That's not who I am.

If I don't get a TV show next year because someone looks up my Wikipedia and it says 'openly gay,' then it's worth the risk because I've had so many years being openly gay and proud of myself as a role model.

I'm proud to carry that torch and be like, 'I'm gay! I'm black! Hang your dreams on me. Hang your hopes on me. I'll carry them to the best of my ability.'

We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that.

It is important that you're out, and it is important that you're visible.

The Olympics is a cool opportunity to represent our country, which is amazing. But I have another community I am competing for, and that is the LGBT community.

As a gay black man, it's important to me to show up - that I'm able to show up as my whole self, in every space that I'm in, because that's how I'm able to be the most true to who I am.

A true flag is not something you can really design. A true flag is torn from the soul of the people. A flag is something that everyone owns, and that's why they work. The Rainbow Flag is like other flags in that sense: it belongs to the people.

Part of me looks at the gay movement now and worries that we're losing our individuality.

Without gay men, I am nothing.

It doesn't annoy me but I think of myself as a presenter who is gay, rather than a gay presenter. It's a subtle distinction, but that's how I view it.

As a standup, I try to change the world. As an entertainer, I try to entertain. And as a lesbian, I try to pick up the prettiest girl in the room.

Love yourself, whatever makes you different, and use it to make you stand out. Mine is my voice and the fact that I'm gay: well, the fact that I'm flamboyantly gay.

Ironically, when I've asked my straight friends to join me in hanging a rainbow flag, they answer, 'But someone might think we're gay,' not realizing that is exactly the point. To be mistaken for the oppressed is to momentarily become the oppressed.

Everybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London, I never tried to hide.

Coming out is a means of redefining oneself, of claiming membership in a lifestyle and a social order with distinct values. Chief among these values is honesty.

Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.

I'm out here to represent the gingers, the gypsies, and the outcasts. Because I am all of the above, and I'm all about having a great time.

Being from New York, if you're gay, you're gay. I think it's important that if you are gay, you not be afraid to say who you are.

There's kind of a gift in being gay because, if you come out, you're forced to express yourself.