Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities have adopted certain symbols and symbolates for which they are identified and by which they demonstrate unity, pride, shared values, and allegiance to one another. LGBT symbols also communicate ideas, concepts and identity both within their communities and to mainstream cultures. Arguably the two most-recognized international LGBT symbols are the pink triangle and the pride flag.

Contents Background Labrys Triangles during World War II Lambda Purple hand Rainbow flag Gay and lesbian gender symbols Freedom rings Bisexuality Transgender symbol Bear community Leather sub-culture Other symbols See also References External links

Background

Although LGBT people have arguably existed in some form in every culture much of written history omits their existence and contributions. The first recorded same-sex couple traces back to 2400 B.C. although researchers may still find evidence of LGBT people prior to this time period.^[1][2] Presently many societies continue to disparage non-heteronormative values and mores. LGBT people were forced to hide their behavior and identity in order to avoid ridicule, imprisonment and, in many cases, death. This continues though is in somewhat of a decline. Until the late 20th century, it was widely believed in the Western world that non-mainstream forms of sexuality and gender-identity were mental illnesses. Even in countries which have historically been tolerant of homosexuality, it was often seen as a youthful behavior, subordinate to getting married and having children, and most homosexuals were unable to express their identity outside of this societal framework.

A new period of liberalism in the late 1960s began a new era of more social acceptance for LGBT people with the feminist and black liberation movements building momentum for gay rights acceptance. Widely considered the spark of the modern gay rights movement, the Stonewall Riots in New York City helped launch a worldwide tradition of gay pride parades which in turn prompted more LGBT people to look for and embrace symbols of significance to their lives and experiences. Increased communication owing to the Internet and other media have allowed Asian and African LGBT people in particular access to a community in which they can be represented.

Labrys

The Labrys

Triangles during World War II

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.?

While the pink triangle was used exclusively with male prisoners, lesbians were not included under Paragraph 175. However, women were arrested and imprisoned for "antisocial behavior," which include anything from feminism, lesbianism, and prostitution to any woman who didn't conform to the ideal Nazi image of a woman: cooking, cleaning, kitchen work, child raising, passive, etc. These women were labeled with a black triangle. Modern-day lesbians have reclaimed this symbol for themselves as gay men have reclaimed the pink triangle.

Lambda

A lambda

Because of its official adoption by the GAA, which sponsored public events for the gay community, the lambda soon became a quick way for the members of the gay community to identify each other. The reasoning was that the lambda would easily be mistaken for a college fraternity symbol and ignored by the majority of the population. Eventually though, the GAA headquarters was torched by an arsonist, destroying not only the building but all of the organization's records, and the movement never recovered from the loss. The symbol, however, lived on.

Now what the symbol means or meant when it was introduced are a prime topic for speculation and a morass of public rumoring. Some of the more popular rumors are:

• Simply, the Greek letter "L" stands for "liberation."
• The Greek Spartans believed that the lambda represented unity.
• The Romans took it as meaning "the light of knowledge shining into the darkness of ignorance."
• The charged energy of the gay movement. This stems from the lambda's use in chemistry and physics to denote energy in equations.
• The synergy which results when gays and lesbians work together towards a common goal (a gestalt theory which also stems from the physics-energy theory)
• The notion that straights and gays, or gays and lesbians, or any pairing of these three, are on different wavelengths when it comes to sex, sexuality, or even brain patterns. This again comes from the lambda's presence in chemistry and physics, where it is sometimes used to represent the wavelength of certain types of energy.
• An iconic rendering of the scales of justice and the constant force that keeps opposing sides from overcoming each other. The hook at the bottom of the right leg would then signify the action and initiative needed to reach and maintain balance.
• The lambda is also thought by some to have appeared on the shields of Spartan and/or Theben warriors. The Thebes version is more popular because, as legend has it, the city- state organized the Theban Band from groups of idealized lovers, which made them extremely fierce and dedicated warriors. Eventually however, the army was completely decimated by King Philip II, but was later honored by his son Alexander the Great.

There is no actual evidence though that the lambda was ever associated with this group. However, there was Hollywood movie in the 1962s called The 300 Spartans starring Diane Baker, Richard Egan, and Ralph Richardson that showed Spartan warriors who appeared to have lambdas on their shields.

Whatever the lambda meant or means today, it's everywhere. Even though at one time it acquired a strictly male connotation, it is used by both gays and lesbians today. Back in December 1974, the lambda was officially declared the international symbol for gay and lesbian rights by the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland. ^[4] Also, the lambda is said to signify unity under oppression.^[4] The gay rights organization Lambda Legal and the American Lambda Literary Award derive their names from this symbol.

Purple hand

Purple hand from the 1970s.

Inspired by "Black Hand" (La Mano Nera in Italian) extortion methods of Camorra gangsters and the Mafia,^[13] some activists attempted to institute "purple hand" as a gay and lesbian symbol as a warning to stop anti-gay attacks, with little success. In Turkey, the LGBT rights organization Purple Hand Eski?ehir LGBT Formation (MorEl Eski?ehir LGBTT Olu?umu), also bears the name of this symbol.^[14]

Rainbow flag

The Rainbow flag has emerged as an international LGBT symbol and routinely represents the various LGBT communities at events including pride parades like this one in Paris, France.

Gay and lesbian gender symbols

Pairs of male gender symbols and female gender symbols are used to form symbols for gay and lesbian, respectively. Variations on this theme can be used to represent bisexuals and transsexuals.

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 themselves or as part of necklaces, bracelets, and key chains. They're often referred to as "Fruit Loops".^[15] For National Coming Out Day (held in the United States on 11 October) students have made home-made versions of the "freedom rings" with actual Fruit Loops cereal.

Bisexuality

The blue and pink overlapping triangle 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.

First unveiled on 5 December 1998^[16], the bisexual pride flag was designed by Michael Page 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.

The bisexual moon symbol was created to avoid the use of the Nazi-originated pink triangle.^[17]

Transgender 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 transgender 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:

Other transgender symbols include the butterfly (symbolizing transformation or metamorphosis), and a pink/light blue yin and yang symbol.

Bear community

The International Bear Brotherhood Flag designed in 1995 by Craig Byrnes(VA Copyright 760-763), digital graphic by Paul Witzkoske for Bear Manufacturing ^[18]

Bears marching in San Francisco Pride 2004.

"Bears" are almost always gay or bisexual men although increasingly transgender men and those who shun labels for gender and sexuality are also included within bear communities. The Bear community has spread all over the world, with Bear clubs in many countries. Bear clubs often serve as social and sexual networks for older, hairier, sometimes heavier gay and bisexual men, and members often contribute to their local gay communities through fundraising and other functions. Bear events are common in heavily-gay communities.

Leather sub-culture

The Leather Pride flag. Although most often associated with the gay community, many heterosexuals are also involved in the culture.

The Leather Pride Flag was designed by Tony DeBlase, and he first presented the design at the International Mr. Leather event in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 28 May 1989.

"The flag is composed of nine horizontal stripes of equal width. From the top and from the bottom, the stripes alternate black and royal blue. The central stripe is white. In the upper left quadrant of the flag is a large red heart. I will leave it to the viewer to interpret the colors and symbols."

Another name that is used to describe the leather flag is "Black and Blue with Love".

Other symbols

Purple rhinoceros from 1974. Lavender was used because it was a widely recognized gay pride color and the heart was added to represent love and the "common humanity of all people."

• 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.
• A green carnation has been associated with homosexuality, due to the author Oscar Wilde often sporting one. The term wearing a green carnation, however, is sometimes used as a derogatory term.
• 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 1950?s through the 1970?s.
• Gay activists in Boston chose the purple 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 - but when a rhinoceros is angered, it fights ferociously.
• 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 1920s, 30's and 40's.
• In the United Kingdom, the Pink Jack has been widely used in recent years to demonstrate a unique British Gay and Lesbian identity.^[20]

Conversely, since the first century, the hare, the hyena,^[21][22][23] and the weasel have been used in literature as negative symbols of male homosexuality, with connotations of sexual perversion.

See also

• Dramatic symbol
• Emblem
• Glyph
• Grapheme
• Hanky code
• Icon (religious) and secular icon

• LGBT slogans
• List of common symbols
• List of symbols
• Logo
• National symbol
• Religious symbolism

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References

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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