A young hippie gay man stepped out of the crowd with a bunch of carnations in his left hand. As he walked towards the soldiers, the situation grew even tenser.
He walked along the file of soldiers and began placing the flowers into the barrels of their gun with his right hand.
'The turtleneck sweater-wearing protester came out of nowhere and it took me years to find out who he was … his name was Harris.' — Bernie Boston, the photographer
The Pulitzer prize-winning photo of this incident, taken by Bernie Boston, is actually of George Edgerly Harris III better known by his stage name Hibiscus.
Hibiscus was a member of the San Francisco based gay liberation theatre troupe the Cockettes.
How history forgot George Edgerly Harris III
It is interesting to see how another gay man was written out of history. Thanks to Pepsi’s advertisement where the iconic ‘Flower Power’ moment was reenacted with a celebrity so many times that we always misremember the person in the photo as being a woman.
‘Flower power’ became a peace slogan during the years of passive resistance towards the Vietnam war. The movement spread nation-wide and the use of props like flowers was meant to reduce the fear, anger, and threat of these protests.
Hibiscus belonged to an acting family and had performed in NY downtown theaters. After founding the Cockettes, he moved to San Francisco and embraced the drag lifestyle.
Hibiscus always wanted the Cockettes performances to be free and there was another faction in the group who wanted to get paid for the work. Following differences, Hibiscus separated from the group, and the final show before the group disbanded happened in 1972.
Hibiscus died of AIDS in 1982 — at that time, AIDS was still referred to as GRID which stood for Gay-Related Immuno-Deficiency.
Perhaps the greatest legacy Hibiscus left behind was that of peace, love, and a free-spirited gypsy."
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