Purple also became a popular symbol of gay pride in the 1960s and 1970s, when San Franciscans tried to make a symbol of “ the Purple Hand” and gay Bostonians put up posters emblazoned with a purple rhino. The Rainbow flag (LGBT flag) is a symbol recognised across the world as the celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. According to the book Sunshine and Rainbows, a study of gay culture in Queensland, “If you wanted to attract the attention of the same sex, displaying a pair of bright yellow socks often did the trick.” During the Holocaust, gay men were forced to wear pink triangles, and that symbol has since been reclaimed by the gay community. Google Supports Gay Pride With Rainbow Colors Conduct a search in Google for gay, lesbian, homosexual, and other related searches and you might see Google supporting gay pride by adding a rainbow. Yellow was used for the same purpose in Australia. Demand for the rainbow flag accelerated in the aftermath of the murders for display at gay pride parades and at events organised in honour of the slain champion of LGBT rights. Smith says she uses the trans flag colors (pink, blue and white, symbolizing the transition and fluidity between genders) to allow others to. Today this is the most common variant of the rainbow flag, with the red stripe on top, as in a natural rainbow. Today, there’s a whole rainbow of queer pride flags.
Novelist Robert Hitchens described the phenomenon in 1894’s The Green Carnation, and the book in part spurred Wilde’s trial for sodomy. However, because of production issues, the pink and turquoise stripes were removed and indigo was replaced by basic blue, which resulted in the contemporary six-striped flag (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet). Oscar Wilde was famous for wearing a trademark green carnation on his lapel, and the flower is thought to have been used by him and other Londoners and Parisians of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries to quietly express their orientation. Oscar Wilde was famous for wearing a trademark green. Why is gay pride represented by rainbows?Ĭloseted gay people historically used bright colors to signal their homosexuality to each other. Why is gay pride represented by rainbows Closeted gay people historically used bright colors to signal their homosexuality to each other. Streets around the world will be decked in rainbows this week as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community celebrates LGBT Pride Month.