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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey y'all, I'm Eves and welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast for people who truly

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Speaker 1: believe that you learned something new every day today is doing.

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Speaker 1: The day was June ninety eight. The rainbow flag, made

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Speaker 1: specifically to represent the LGBTQ community, was flown for the

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Speaker 1: first time at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

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Speaker 1: Over the years since his creation, the rainbow flag has

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Speaker 1: become an international symbol, both to celebrate LGBTQ pride and

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Speaker 1: in the fight for lgbt Q rights. The rainbow flag

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Speaker 1: was designed by Gilbert Baker. Born in nineteen fifty one

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Speaker 1: in Chanute, Kansas. Baker gravitated towards art and fashion design

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Speaker 1: at a very young age. He was drafted into the

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Speaker 1: United States Army in nineteen seventy, where he experienced a

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Speaker 1: significant amount of homophobia. Eventually stationed in San Francisco as

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Speaker 1: an army medic, he found a sense of community there

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Speaker 1: in the burgeoning post Stonewall gay rights movement. He decided

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Speaker 1: to stay in San Francisco after his honorable discharge from

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Speaker 1: the military. Baker design banners for various pro gay and

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Speaker 1: anti war protests. Over time, people began suggesting that Baker

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Speaker 1: design and create a symbol specifically for the gay and

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Speaker 1: lesbian rights movement. Until that point, many people used paint

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Speaker 1: triangles as a pride symbol. During World War Two, Nazis

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Speaker 1: used pink triangles to mark suspected gay males and concentration camps,

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Speaker 1: and the gay community had reclaimed the symbol as a

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Speaker 1: symbol of pride, but many people were calling for a new,

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Speaker 1: original symbol to represent the gay rights movement. One such

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Speaker 1: person was Harvey Milk, who was a friend of Baker's.

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Speaker 1: Milk had recently been sworn in as the first openly

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Speaker 1: gay elected official in California. Baker felt that the different

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Speaker 1: color of the rainbow represented the variety of people in

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Speaker 1: sexualities that made up the LGBTQ community. The original flag

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Speaker 1: consisted of eight stripes, with each symbolizing something different. He

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Speaker 1: assembled a group of around thirty volunteers who died and

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Speaker 1: sowed the flags at a laundry mat and a gay

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Speaker 1: community center. On June, the flag was raised in the

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Speaker 1: United Nations Plaza in San Francisco for the Gay Freedom

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Speaker 1: Day Parade. The flag gained even more noticed by the public.

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Speaker 1: A few months later, when Harvey Milk was assassinated at

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Speaker 1: San Francisco City Hall on November, demand for the flag skyrocketed.

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Speaker 1: In the wake of the assassination. The Paramount Flag Company

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Speaker 1: in San Francisco began mass producing the flag as demand increased,

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Speaker 1: The flag went through a few different iterations. The color

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Speaker 1: hot pink was removed from the flag design since it

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Speaker 1: was too hard to find for mass production and ray

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Speaker 1: It became the top stripe, which was consistent with a

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Speaker 1: rainbow and nature. Turquoise was later dropped and the rainbow

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Speaker 1: flag became the sixth stripe design most commonly seen today.

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Speaker 1: The flag has also been the subject of controversy. In

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Speaker 1: nine John Stout, a resident of West Hollywood, sued his

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Speaker 1: landlord for attempting to prohibit him from flying the flag

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Speaker 1: on his balcony. Stout won the lawsuit. In two thousand four,

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Speaker 1: as a form of protests against the Australian government's refusal

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Speaker 1: to recognize same sex marriages, a group of LGBTQ activists

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Speaker 1: planted the rainbow flag on the uninhabited corral Sea Island's

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Speaker 1: territory off the coast of Australia. And claimed it as

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Speaker 1: an independent micro nation for the gay community. Besides the

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Speaker 1: rainbow flag, there are other flags that represent LGBTQ communities,

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Speaker 1: like the Transgender Pride flag created by Monica Helms. Baker

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Speaker 1: enjoyed a successful career as a vexilographer for flag designer.

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Speaker 1: By the time he died in two thousand seventeen, he

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Speaker 1: hadn't made a significant amount of money from creating the

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Speaker 1: rainbow flag, and he never copyrighted the design because he

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Speaker 1: wanted it to belong to everyone. He once said the

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Speaker 1: following the moment I knew that the flag was beyond

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Speaker 1: my own personal experience, that it wasn't just something I

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Speaker 1: was making, but was something that was happening, was March

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Speaker 1: on Washington. From my home in San Francisco. I watched

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Speaker 1: the march on c SPAN and saw hundreds of thousands

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Speaker 1: of people carrying and waving rainbow flags on a scale

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Speaker 1: I never imagined the flag lives on as a ubiquitous

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Speaker 1: and internationally recognized symbol of LGBTQ pride. I'm each deaf

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Speaker 1: Coote and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. And if you have any comment,

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Speaker 1: Serce suggestions, feel free to send them our way. We're

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Speaker 1: at t D I h C Podcast on Facebook, Twitter,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can also hit us up via email

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Speaker 1: where at this day at i heeart Media dot com.

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Speaker 1: And a special shout out today to Alexis and you Chandler,

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Speaker 1: the super producers on the show, who, as always continue

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Speaker 1: to do amazing work. By h For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: i Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.