LGBT symbols
Like many other organizations and communities, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community have adopted certain symbols by which they are identified and by which they demonstrate unity, pride, shared values, and allegiance to one another.
Pink and black triangles
One of the oldest of these symbols is the pink triangle, which originated from the Nazi concentration camp badges that homosexuals were required to wear on their clothing. It is estimated that as many as 220,000 gays and lesbians perished alongside the 6,000,000 Jews whom the Nazis exterminated in their death camps during World War II as part of Hitler’s so-called final solution. For this reason, the pink triangle is used both as an identification symbol and as a memento to remind both its wearers and the general public of the atrocities that gays suffered under Nazi persecutors. ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) also adopted the inverted pink triangle to symbolize the “active fight back” against the disease “rather than a passive resignation to fate.”
The Nazis compelled “undesirable” women, including lesbians, to wear the inverted Black Triangle. Modern-day lesbians have reclaimed this symbol for themselves as gay men have reclaimed the pink triangle.
See also: History of gays in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
Rainbow flag
Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag for the 1978 San Francisco's Gay Freedom Celebration. The flag does not depict or show an actual rainbow. Rather, the colors of the rainbow are displayed as horizontal stripes, with red at the top and purple at the bottom. It represents the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. The purple stripe is sometimes replaced with a black stripe to show masculinity or leather pride. Red stands for life, orange stands for healing, yellow stands for the sun, green stands for nature, blue stands for harmony, and purple stands for the soul. The original rainbow flag had two additional stripes: a pink stripe and an aqua stripe: two colors that denote bisexuality. These two colors are in the Bisexual Double Triangle and the bright pink is also similar to the Pink Triangle. The original eight color rainbow flag flies over the Castro in San Francisco and from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in New York City.
Lambda
In 1970, the Greek letter lambda (λ) was selected to symbolize the Gay Activists Alliance’s campaign for gay liberation, and, four years later, the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, chose the same symbol to represent lesbian and gay rights. As a result, the lambda has become internationally known. It is traditional for the lambda to be shown in lavender, a color which, like pink, is often associated with homosexuality. The lambda, in physics represents wavelength, associated with energy, and therefore is used to symbolize the energy of the Gay Rights Movement. Also, the lambda is said to signify unity under oppression.
The gay rights organization, Lambda Legal, also bears the name of this symbol.
Purple Hand
The purple hand didn't last long. The story goes that, sometime in the 1970s, a group of people stormed the San Francisco Examiner office protesting a homophobic editorial. The protestors had purple inked poured over them in retaliation, and so they proceeded to stamp purple hand prints all over the side of the building. Inspired by the New York mafia gang "The Black Hand," some activists attempted to use the "purple hand" as a gay and lesbian symbol, with little success.
In Turkey the LGBT rights organization,Purple Hand Eskişehir LGBT Formation(MorEl Eskişehir LGBTT Oluşumu), also bears the name of this symbol.
Freedom rings
Freedom rings, designed by David Spada, are six aluminum rings, each in one of the colors of the rainbow flag. Symbolizing independence and tolerance, these rings are worn as necklaces, bracelets, rings, and key chains. They're often referred to as "Fruit Loops". A subtle distinction often ignored is if the red ring is toward the wearer's right hand, they are gay. If the red ring is toward the left hand, they are straight and gay-friendly.[citation needed]
Labrys
The labrys, or double-bladed battle axe, was a symbol used in the ancient civilization of Minoan Crete (sometimes portrayed as having certain matriarchal tendencies), and in ancient Greek legends it was supposedly used by Scythian Amazon women warriors (sometimes said to be ruled by two queens at a time). It can also be associated with the Greek goddess Demeter (Ceres in Roman mythology) and occasionally the Greek goddess Artemis (Diana in Roman mythology).[citation needed]
The labrys is often used used to represent lesbian and feminist strength and self-sufficiency.
Bisexual Double Triangle or Overlapping Triangle
This symbol represents bisexuality and bi pride. The exact origin of this symbol, sometimes facetiously referred to as the "biangles", remains ambiguous. It is popularly thought that the pink triangle may represent homosexuality, as it does when it stands alone, while the blue stands for heterosexuality. The two together form the color lavender, a blend of both sexual orientations and a color that has been associated with homosexuality for almost a century. It's also possible that the pink may represent attraction to females, the blue attraction to males and lavender attraction to both.
Bisexuality flag
In 1988, Michael Page designed a bisexual pride flag to represent the bisexual community. This rectangular flag consists of a broad magenta stripe at the top, representing same-gender attraction; a broad stripe in blue at the bottom, representing opposite-gender attraction; and a narrower deep lavender band occupying the central fifth, which represents attraction towards both genders.
Transgendered symbol
Popular transgender symbols, used to identify transvestites, transsexuals, and other transgender people, frequently consist of a modified biological symbol, originating from a drawing by Holly Boswell. In addition to the arrow projecting from the top right of the circle that comprises the biological symbol for the male (from the astrological symbol for Mars), and in addition to the cross projecting from the bottom of the circle that comprises the biological symbol for the female (from the astrological symbol for Venus), the symbol incorporates both these devices as well as a cross topped by an arrowhead (combining the male and the female motifs) which projects from the top left of the circle. (See also: Gender symbols)
Another transgender symbol is the Transgender Pride flag designed by Monica Helms, and first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, USA in 2000. The flag represents the transgendered community and consists of five horizontal stripes, two light blue, two pink, with a white stripe in the center. Helms described the meaning of the flag as follows:
"The light blue is the traditional color for baby boys, pink is for girls, and the white in the middle is for those who are transitioning, those who feel they have a neutral gender or no gender, and those who are intersexed. The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it will always be correct. This symbolizes us trying to find correctness in our own lives."
Other transgender symbols include the butterfly (symbolizing transformation or metamorphosis), and a pink/light blue yin and yang symbol.
Other symbols
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In addition to these major symbols of the GLBT community, other lesser symbols have been used to represent members’ unity, pride, shared values, and allegiance to one another.
- American poet Walt Whitman used the calamus plant to represent homoerotic love.
- Nineteenth-century poets used the ladslove plant to symbolize homosexuality.
- In ancient Rome, as in 19th-century England, green indicated homosexual affiliations. Victorian men would often pin a green carnation to their lapel as a signal.
- Since the first century the hare, the hyena, and the weasel have been associated with male homosexuality.
- The phoenix, representing the ability of the penis to erect and resurrect itself sexually, has long symbolized male homosexuality.
- In the early years of the 20th century, a red necktie was worn by some men to signal their homosexuality to others.
- The pinky ring was a fashionable jewelry accessory for male homosexuals during the decades of the 1950’s through the 1970’s.
- Gay activists in Boston chose the rhinoceros as a symbol of the gay movement after conducting a media campaign for this purpose, selecting this animal because, although it is sometimes misunderstood, it is really both docile and intelligent.
- Lesbians in the mid-twentieth century would tattoo a blue star on a part of the body, commonly the arm, that could be covered during the day and revealed at night/in clubs.
- Bisexual women and lesbians would give violets to the woman they were wooing, symbolizing their "Sapphic" desire. Sappho described, in a poem, herself and a lover wearing garlands of violets. The giving of violets was popular in the 1920's, 30's and 40's.
External links
- http://www.swade.net/gallery/symbols.html shows images of some of these symbols and offers a brief historical account of each of them.
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