LGBT symbols

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. __TOC__

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. [Michael Rice, "Who's Who in Ancient Egypt", Routledge 2001, ISBN 0415154480; "op.cit." p.98] [Thomas A Dowson, "Archaeologists, Feminists, and Queers: sexual politics in the construction of the past". In, Pamela L. Geller, Miranda K. Stockett, "Feminist Anthropology: Past, Present, and Future", pp 89-102. University of Pennsylvania Press 2006, ISBN 0812239407 "op.cit.", pp.96ff.] 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, 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).Fact|date=February 2007 The labrys is often used used to represent lesbian and feminist strength and self-sufficiency. [ [http://www.swade.net/gallery/symbols.html#labrys swade.net] Swade Pages - 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.

pink triangle was originally used to denote homosexual men as a Nazi concentration camp badge.
black triangle was used to mark "asocial" and "workshy" individuals, including prostitutes, Roma and others in Nazi concentration camps. It has been argued that it included lesbians, but this is disputed. The badge has been taken up as a lesbian symbol.
Jewish homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps.

:"See also: History of gays in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust"

Lambda

One symbol which continues to remain popular is the lower case Greek letter lambda. The symbol was originally chosen by the Gay Activists Alliance of New York in 1970. The GAA was a group which broke away from the larger Gay Liberation Front at the end of 1969, only six months after its foundation in response to the Stonewall Riots. While the GLF wanted to work side by side with the black and women's liberation movements to gain unity and acceptance, the GAA wanted to focus their efforts more concisely on only Gay and Lesbian issues.

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. cite web
last=Riffenburg IV
first=Charles Edward
title=Symbols of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Movements: The lambda
publisher=LAMBDA GLBT Community Services
year=2008
url =http://www.lambda.org/symbols.htm
accessdate=2008-07-01] Also, the lambda is said to signify unity under oppression. The gay rights organization Lambda Legal and the American Lambda Literary Award derive their names from this symbol.

Purple hand

On Halloween night (31 October), 1969, sixty members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Society for Individual Rights (SIR) staged a protest at San Francisco's "Examiner" in response to another in a series of news articles disparaging LGBT people in San Francisco's gay bars and clubs.cite web |last=Gould
first=Robert E.
title=What We Don't Know About Homosexuality
publisher=New York Times Magazine
date= 24 February, 1974
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=0wfHq53yNCYC&pg=PA371&vq=%22purple+hand%22&dq=%22purple+hand%22+gay+-%22john+gay%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&sig=TpzPYZiiEWhmmgkQSukNNipgUyo#PPA344,M1
accessdate=2008-01-01] cite web
last=Alwood |first=Edward
title=Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media
publisher=Columbia University; ISBN 0231084366
year=1996
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=0wfHq53yNCYC&pg=PA94&dq=%22purple+hand%22+gay+-%22john+gay%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&sig=sTPXw9J62QLRaX651ZtV9xR7OPs#PPA93,M1
accessdate=2008-01-01] The peaceful protest against the "homophobic editorial policies" of the "San Francisco Examiner" turned tumultuous and were later called "Friday of the Purple Hand" and "Bloody Friday of the Purple Hand".cite web |last=Bell |first=Aurthur
title=Has The Gay Movement Gone Establishment?
publisher=Village Voice
date= 28 March, 1974
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=0wfHq53yNCYC&pg=PA371&vq=%22purple+hand%22&dq=%22purple+hand%22+gay+-%22john+gay%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&sig=TpzPYZiiEWhmmgkQSukNNipgUyo#PPA344,M1
accessdate=2008-01-01] cite web
last=Van Buskirk |first=Jim
title=Gay Media Comes of Age
publisher=Bay Area Reporter
year=2004
url =http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/san_francisco,2.html
accessdate=2008-01-01] cite web
title=Friday of the Purple Hand
publisher=The San Francisco Free Press
date=November 15-30, 1969
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=X-s3MQmEQiMC&pg=PA51&dq=%22purple+hand%22&sig=MnGPh_ze-gfu14bTnFhYVUdX_zo
accessdate=2008-01-01 courtesy the Gay Lesbian Historical Society.] cite web |title="Gay Power" Politics
publisher=GLBTQ, Inc.
date=30 March, 2006
url =http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op&id=41
accessdate=2008-01-01] Examiner employees "dumped a bag of printers' ink from the third story window of the newspaper building onto the crowd". Some reports were that it was a barrel of ink poured from the roof of the building.cite web |last=Montanarelli |first=Lisa
coauthors=Ann Harrison
title=Strange But True San Francisco: Tales of the City by the Bay
publisher=Globe Pequot; ISBN 076273681X
year=2005
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=5FqTS3ZCbjgC&dq=%22purple+hand%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0
accessdate=2008-01-01] The protestors "used the ink to scrawl "Gay Power" and other slogans on the building walls" and stamp purple hand prints "throughout downtown San Francisco" resulting in "one of the most visible demonstrations of gay power". cquote|At that point, the tactical squad arrived -- not to get the employees who dumped the ink, but to arrest the demonstrators who were the victims. The police could have surround the Examiner building...but, no, they went after the gays...Somebody could have been hurt if that ink had gotten into their eyes, but the police came racing in with their clubs swinging, knocking people to the ground. it was unbelievable.
-- Larry LittleJohn, then president of SIR The accounts of police brutality include women being thrown to the ground and protester's teeth being knocked out.cite web
title=Newspaper Series Surprises Activists
publisher=The Advocate
date=24 April, 1974
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=0wfHq53yNCYC&pg=PA371&vq=%22purple+hand%22&dq=%22purple+hand%22+gay+-%22john+gay%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&sig=TpzPYZiiEWhmmgkQSukNNipgUyo#PPA344,M1
accessdate=2008-01-01]

Inspired by "Black Hand" ("La Mano Nera" in Italian) extortion methods of Camorra gangsters and the Mafia,Jay Robert Nash, "World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime," Da Capo Press, 1993. ISBN 0306805359] 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 Eskişehir LGBT Formation (MorEl Eskişehir LGBTT Oluşumu), also bears the name of this symbol. [ [http://moreleskisehir.blogspot.com MorEl Eskişehir LGBTT Oluşumu ] ]

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. 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.

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".cite web
last=Green
first=Jonathon
title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang
publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
date=2006, ISBN 0304366366
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=my_ut0maeV4C&pg=PA549&dq=%22Fruit+Loops%22+gay&sig=Q-Rel2661bjMNtHlXJRfnXEmk7E#PPA549,M1
accessdate=2007-11-15] 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 [ [http://www.biflag.com/Activism.asp BiFlag.com - History, Bi Activism, Free Graphics ] ] , 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.cite web |url=http://andrejkoymasky.com/lou/sym/sym05.html |title=Gay Symbols: Other Miscellaneous Symbols |accessdate=2007-02-18 |author=Koymasky, Matt |coauthors=Koymasky Andrej |date=06-08-14]

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

"Bear" is an affectionate gay slang term for those in the bear communities, a subculture in the gay community and an emerging subset of LGBT communities with events, codes and culture specific identity. Bears tend to have hairy bodies and facial hair; some are heavy-set; some project an image of working-class masculinity in their grooming and appearance, though none of these are requirements or unique indicators. The bear concept can function as an identity, an affiliation, and an ideal to live up to, and there is ongoing debate in bear communities about what constitutes a bear. Some state that self-identifying as a bear is the only requirement, while others argue that bears must have certain physical characteristics—such as a hairy chest and face or having a large body—and a certain mode of dress and behavior.

"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

Leather culture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities and eroticism ("kink"). Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Leather culture is most visible in gay communities and most often associated with gay men ("leathermen"), but it is also reflected in various ways in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight worlds. Many people associate leather culture with BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sado/Masochism, also called "SM") practice. But for others, wearing black leather clothing is an erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles and independence; and engagement in sexual kink or leather fetishism. ["Elegy for the Valley of Kings," by Gayle Rubin, in "In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS," ed. Levine et. al., University of Chicago Press]

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

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.
* 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. [Pink News interview with David Gwinnutt, creator of the "Pink Jack". [http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/opinion/2005-2030.html] . Retrieved 1 January 2008.]

Conversely, since the first century, the hare, the hyena, [Forger, Nancy G., Laurence G. Frank, S. Marc Breedlove, Stephen E. Glickman (6 December 1998). [http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(19961111)375:2%3C333::AID-CNE11%3E3.0.CO;2-W "Sexual Dimorphism of Perineal Muscles and Motoneurons in Spotted Hyenas"] ; The Journal of Comparative Neurology, Volume 375, Issue 2 , Pages 333 - 343. Retrieved 11 September 2007.] [Holekamp, Kay E. (2003). [http://hyenas.zoology.msu.edu/crocuta/hyena_research_overview.html "Research: Spotted Hyena - Introduction and Overview"] . Michigan State University, Department of Zoology. Retrieved 11 September 2007.] [Wilson, [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?SIGNS032803 "Sexing the Hyena: "The males mount each other"] University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 11 September 2007.] and the weasel have been used in literature as negative symbols of male homosexuality, with connotations of sexual perversion.

ee 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

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.