The Flag in the Map
April 2022–April 2023
Curated by the Gilbert Baker Foundation and ReportOUT
Community Gallery
“This was one of the very rare moments when we could wave the Pride flag in the streets of Shanghai. We had to make the shot very quickly for fear of being reprimanded. . . . The Pride flag reminds us of unity and support for the LGBTQ community and its allies.”
About the Exhibition
The Flag in the Map project documents people flying their pride flags, however they are able, in all parts of the world. Participants are asked to share what the pride flag means to them, and a selection of the responses are on display in this installation and in additional exhibitions around the world. This educational project is a partnership between the Gilbert Baker Foundation and ReportOUT. Learn more about this project by visiting gilbertbaker.com/flaginthemap.
This exhibition expands upon the GLBT Historical Society’s extensive collection of pride flags and related materials, including the two Gilbert Baker archival collections. We are proud to host the inaugural installation of this exhibition alongside the fragment of the original rainbow flag.
“I was interrogated by the Russians. They took my phone. They took my passwords. They tried to get me to inform on other activists. I refused to cooperate and went into hiding.”
In June 2020, Ukraine activist Ruslan Beliaiev used a drone to fly an LGBTQ rainbow-striped flag over the Statue of the Motherland in the Ukrainian capital during the Kyiv Pride celebrations. Today these brave activists are under direct attack as Russia threatens to eliminate anything LGBTQ from Ukraine.
ReportOUT Statement
As a global human rights organization for sexual and gender minorities, we constantly monitor people’s lived experiences in different nation states, and we know the importance of the pride flag to people’s identities, and their resistance to often oppressive regimes. We constantly see and hear of the breadth of its ever-growing influence.
The pride flag has taken on a symbolic power of global proportions. From being waved in Pride marches, to serving as a symbol of support from our growing allies, to becoming an image which transgresses national borders—it unites us as a global, connected, community. The pride flag has evolved, as we have evolved as a movement. It represents our love, our freedom and our growing consciousness for human rights for all.
Yet, we must never forget that in some nation states, flying the pride flag demands courage and can come with a severe backlash from the state. We have seen this in the sad death of Sarah Hegazi in Egypt, who was arrested and tortured for flying the pride flag at a concert; in Russia, where flying the flag publicly can lead to arrest; and recently in Iran, where the state placed pride flags on the ground for the public to walk over.
Some nation states fear the force behind the pride flag. They fear our voices, our strength, and our power in numbers. The pride flag is our tool to unite behind, and the greater the storm that we face, the brighter the rainbow.
The Flag in the Map project represents a truly global way to proclaim the power of the pride flag, and to highlight to the world the bravery and social justice of everyone who made wonderful contributions to our project. ReportOUT are delighted to be co-founders and partners with the Gilbert Baker Foundation on this truly inspirational project. We stand in solidarity with you all.
—Drew Dalton, Chair of ReportOUT
“This picture is evidence of my existence as a non-binary person in a country that does not recognize my rights and in a culture that seeks to erase me. It represents the joy that comes after a rainy day—a rainbow.”
About partner organizations
The Gilbert Baker Foundation’s mission is to protect and extend the legacy of Gilbert Baker, the creator of the LGBTQ rainbow flag, as an activist, artist and educator; to record and promote the history of the creation of the rainbow flag and its impact on the world; to educate future generations about the LGBTQ rainbow flag; to support and empower LGBTQ community and artists, organizations, educational institutions, nonprofits, museums, archives and the press; and to promote this mission to the wider world beyond the LGBTQ community.
Sponsors
This exhibition was made possible by the following:
