Later that week at the Winterland Ballroom… Gay people were tribal, individualistic, a global collective that was expressing itself in art and politics. They were primarily nationalistic, territorial, iconic propaganda - all things we questioned in the ‘70s.
I thought how most flags represented a place. I thought of the emotional connection they hold. I discovered the depth of their power, their transcendent, transformational quality. After the orgy of bunting and hoopla surrounding the Bicentennial, I thought of flags in a new light. On every level, it functioned as a message. It was everywhere, from pop art to fine art, from tacky souvenirs to trashy advertising. The American Bicentennial celebration put the focus on the American flag. I had considered all flag-waving and patriotism in general to be a dangerous joke. In the past, when I had thought of a flag, I saw it as just another icon to lampoon. This was our new revolution: a tribal, individualistic, and collective vision. I thought a gay nation should have a flag too, to proclaim its own idea of power.Īs a community, both local and international, gay people were in the midst of an upheaval, a battle for equal rights, a shift in status where we were now demanding power, taking it. I thought of the vertical red, white, and blue tricolor from the French Revolution and how both flags owed their beginnings to a riot, a rebellion, or revolution. I thought of the American flag with its thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, the colonies breaking away from England to form the United States. We all felt that we needed something that was positive, that celebrated our love.Īs Artie implored, I looked at the flags flying on the various government buildings around the Civic Center. It functioned as a Nazi tool of oppression. Adolph Hitler conceived the pink triangle during World War II as a stigma placed on homosexuals in the same way the Star of David was used against Jews. But it represented a dark chapter in the history of same-sex rights. Artie began to press me to come up with a new symbol for what he had called “the dawn of a new gay consciousness and freedom.” Both he and Harvey had brought this up to me before.Īt this point, the pink triangle was the symbol for the gay movement. After the movie, we all walked over to Civic Center Plaza to look at the neoclassic buildings. One day, we went to the Strand Theater on Market Street to see Citizen Kane. We went to see films several times a week. My friend Artie Bressan, Jr., was a filmaker who had just made a documentary of the 1977 Parade, titled “Gay USA.” He was a wild visionary who directed porn on the side to finance his 35mm documentaries.
“To get over Tandy, I devoted myself further to activism and went to the movies. Here Gilbert recalls an evening with his friends Cleve Jones and filmmaker Artie Bressan in early 1978, after his Christmas breakup with Tandy Belew.