Petrelis Files

Schmatta Sisters Baker & Jones
to Perform Mutual Analingus Tonight

 (B.A.R. letters, July 3, 2003. Image credit: Larry-Bob Roberts.)

The winner of the SF Pride committee's newly-created Gilbert Baker Pride Founders Award, none other than Gilbert Baker, will be chatting tonight at the GLBT Historical Society's museum on 18th Street in the Castro.

He will be interviewed by Cleve "The Widow Milk" Jones, creator of the AIDS quilt, in what I predict will be mutual analingus galore.

What's the subject up for discussion, other than the enormous egos of the Schmatta Sisters? The birth of the rainbow flag in San Francisco during the tumultuous year 1978.

Before Baker was against equal grassroots community access to the iconic rainbow flag at Harvey Milk Plaza, or flying any other flag from the large pole, he was all in favor of using the flagpole for political purposes. In July 2003, Baker was happy to fly the American flag at Harvey Milk Plaza, in place of his creation.

Last October, Baker opposed other activists being able to use the pole and flag in a letter to the Bay Area Reporter:

This was never a community flagpole; it is there for one reason, to fly the rainbow flag. [...] One day it's Elizabeth Taylor the next day it's Ruth Brinker, perfectly nice heroes, but the flag should not be lowered for them or anyone else. It is a beacon of hope and symbol of liberation that should always be flown full staff 24/7, 365.

The rainbow flag should always be flown, unless the Gilbert Baker Pride Founders Award winner decides otherwise. Jones also opposes shared grassroots control and responsibility of the flag and pole, which are public property and stand on city real estate. 

So much for the Schmatta Sisters having a clue about democratic engagement or standing up for keeping public space in the domain of the LGBT public, and not controlled only by the Merchants of Upper Market Castro.