Subject: GS!> The Symbols of our Pride
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 09:33:04 -0500 (EST)

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       Welcome to GayScribe!
       by Gip Plaster

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FEATURED: The orgins of the rainbow flag, pink triangle and other symbols of
our pride -- including a lavender rhinoceros.

Welcome again to GayScribe -- featuring the journalism of Gip Plaster. Visit
The GayScribe Page on the Web at http://members.aol.com/gayscribe.

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           About unmasking OURstory

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If you haven't heard, GayScribe now offers a regular column for 1997 that you
can obtain for your publication! The column, called "unmasking OURstory"
takes a 300-word look at gay and lesbian people who made significant
contributions to society -- people who are a part of our community! It's not
just history -- or herstory -- it's OURstory!

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           The Article 

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by Gip Plaster
GayScribe

At least there's not a lavender rhinoceros on your bumper.

Sticking on bumpers, hanging around necks and dangling in front of windows
are a few of the places you'll find the symbols of lesbian and gay pride.
There might even be one tattooed on your partner's arm. Rainbow flags, pink
triangles and that odd wishbone-like Greek letter called lambda are the most
popular symbols today, but there were many others before them.

And, by the way, what does a lavender rhinoceros have to do with gay pride?
Stay tuned.

Because our community has been forced into hiding and secrecy throughout much
of time, lots of our history was locked into closets that were never opened.
Today, many closet doors are flung open and the symbols of lesbian and gay
pride are displayed prominently. We are attempting to reclaim the bits of
history that remain -- and openly make tomorrow's history.

The exact reasons we choose to put these symbols on our clothes or cars are
usually personal and vary a lot. Some of us do it so other gay people can
identify us; other say the symbols notify the world that they are lesbian or
gay. Whether most people recognize the symbols is not clear, but most gay
people do -- and our staunchest enemies do, too.

"Whether the general populace recognizes the rainbow flag or other queer
symbols for what they are, the two primary camps in the struggle for queer
civil rights certainly do," one man wrote in an internet post.

Perhaps more people know the origin of the pink triangle than any other
symbol. During World War II, Nazis herded gays and many others into
concentration camps along with Jews. Gay men were forced to wear
downward-pointing pink triangles on their sleeves. Other colors and
configurations denoted other prisoners. 

Red triangles marked political prisoners; green labeled habitual criminals.
Jehovah's Witnesses, emigrants and others each got their own color, too.
Black triangles labeled vagrants and antisocials, the category into which
most sources report lesbians were placed. A yellow triangle pointing upward
marked a Jew. 

But gay men were the most mistreated of the prisoners, many say.

"The fate of homosexuals in the concentration camps can only be described as
ghastly," Eugen Kogon, who was a political prisoner of the Nazis for six
years, said in his book The Theory and Practice of Hell. "[They were] the
lowest caste in camp... Theirs was an incluble predicament and virtually all
of them perished."

A pink triangle over a yellow one forming a star of David marked the people
who were even lower than the lowest in camp, gay Jews. 

Because Nazi records of concentration camps are incomplete and often
falsified, there is no reliable way to know how many gays and lesbians may
have died in German death camps.

The gay and lesbian community began using the symbol as a sign of pride in
the 1970s to upturn their oppression. Claiming a symbol once used to label
gays for prison and death as a symbol of pride is a way of overcoming the
scars of oppression that the symbol once represented, according to the
reasoning behind the symbols use.

The other symbols of our pride don't carry with them the baggage the triangle
bears.

Lambda is an "officially" recognized symbol of pride. In 1970, the Gay
Activists Alliance chose Greek the letter, which looks like a lowercase "y"
flipped upside down, as the symbol for the gay movement. The International
Gay Rights Congress adopted it in 1974.  

It is not known for sure why lambda was chosen. In physics, lambda signifies
change; that may be the reason. Others say it was because in ancient Greece
it symbolized reconciliation and justice. Whatever the case, in the
seventies, the lambda was the symbol of choice, if there was one, for the
lesbian and gay community. The word "lambda" is still sometimes a code-word
for the whole gay, lesbian and bisexual community.

The lambda and the triangles seem to be going out of style these days,
though, and a more colorful symbol is in. Rainbow flags, in many versions,
hang from windows, adhere to bumpers and even wave down from flagpoles. The
six-striped flag would be even more colorful, but a flag manufacturer changed
the form of the symbol fated to become associated nationwide with gay and
lesbian pride.

The flag dates back farther than many know. It was first stitched together by
its designer, Gilbert Baker, and a group of thirty volunteers who hand-dyed
and assembled two large flags for the 1978 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian
Freedom Day Parade.

The rainbow flag had eight stripes then, and each had a meaning: hot pink for
sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature,
turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit. 

When Baker tried to get the flags mass-produced, he was informed that hot
pink fabric was not commercially available, so Baker's flag became
seven-striped. In 1979, turquoise was removed and today's six-stripe version
was born. The flag is now recognized by the International Congress of Flag
Makers.

Some people like the flag because the rainbow is a Biblical symbol; others
like it because rainbows appear in nature.

"When I see a lambda or pink triangle in the sky, I might change my mind,"
one gay man said.

Today, the rainbow flag may be the symbol of choice, but the pink triangle,
lambda and many others are still around, too. Triangular rainbow flags and
lambdas superimposed on rainbow backgrounds are common. Texas-shaped rainbow
flags are also gaining popularity. Freedom rings and even rainbow-colored
coasters and candles are among jewelry and other items inspired by these
three signs of pride. 

Historically, lots of symbols have been used to represent the gay and lesbian
community. These symbols are as diverse as the times and the people from
which they came.

Earlier this century, before red power ties became common in the corporate
world, a red tie worn by a man might have indicated he was gay.

In 1955, the five-year-old Mattachine Society, a gay group, used harlequin
diamonds as their symbol. The icon presented four diamonds placed in a
pattern to form a larger diamond. Before that, the ancient Chinese yin and
yang, featuring black and white interlocking commas forming a circle, was
associated with lesbians and gays. In 1933, a flag bearing that symbol flew
over the International Commission for Sexual Education, according to the
International Gay and Lesbian Archives.

That flag predates the rainbow banner by decades, but, of course, even it was
not the first pride symbol. In ancient Crete, the labrys, a two-edged ax, was
a symbol of feminine strength and eventually lesbianism.

No one know for sure how far back signs of lesbian and gay pride go, and
there are dozens of other known symbols that are not mentioned here.

In 1974, Bernie Toal and Tom Morganti, Boston gay rights activists, began a
campaign in the media using a lavender rhinoceros as the symbol for gay
people. They placed placards on subways for three months beginning in
December 1974. 

They intended a longer campaign, but since they didn't qualify for the public
service rate for subway advertising, they had to pay more than three times
that amount for the commercial rate (seven dollars). They finally decided to
spend their time focusing on something else.

According to the Alyson Almanac,Toal said, "The rhino is much a maligned and
misunderstood animal and, in actuality, a gentle creature -- but don't cross
him or her."

So what does a lavender rhinoceros have to do with the signs of our pride?
Well, fortunately, not very much. 

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