Toronto, Canada is well known as a gay friendly city and World Pride will only enhance that reputation. Toronto defeated Stockholm for the honour of hosting the event after a vote at the InterPride conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. The city will be awash in rainbows and pink triangles and other symbols of historical and cultural significance to the gay community. It is an opportunity for Canadians to celebrate the acceptance of the gay community at home but is also a time to promote the rights of gay people around the globe who do not enjoy the same freedoms.
Flying rainbow flags in Canada can be done so openly and without impunity. In some countries this is not the case and historically, gay people have used private symbols to identify themselves to other community members. The rainbow flag may be the best known gay pride symbol but it is not the only one. Other symbols historically hold particular meaning to the gay community, and some have evolved from a negative connotation to a positive meaning today.The following are some examples of pride symbols in use today, and some that are no longer necessary in an accepting country such as Canada
Origins of the Rainbow Flag
The rainbow symbol, made up of red, orange, yellow, blue, green and purple, is one of the most recognizable displays of gay pride. From bumper stickers on cars, or street flags hung in gay-friendly neighbourhoods or on the door of a business letting gay customers know they are welcome, the rainbow flag means a tremendous amount to the gay community.
The flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker and originally had eight colours; turquoise and pink are no longer included in the flag. Since its first outing at Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco that year, the flag is a significant presence at all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) events. Some adaptations to the flag are in use such as as additional black stripe on the bottom of the flag symbolizing all the people the gay community has lost to HIV/Aids.
Pink Triangle Used by Nazis to Denote Homosexuals
In concentration camps it is estimated there were between 20,000 and 50,000 homosexuals (no accurate account is known) confined from 1933 to 1945 - many did not survive. Homosexuals were identified by an inverted pink triangle sewn on their clothing - the pink used to suggest the men were like women. In the 1970's the pink triangle was reclaimed and positioned upright as a sign of support for those who had been persecuted by the Nazi's. The pink triangle is representative of the phrase "Never Forget, Never Again". Throughout the world, many LGBT organizations and publications use the term pink triangle as their moniker, for example, Pink Triangle Press, Canada's leading gay and lesbian media organization.
International Gay Pride Colours
Though the rainbow flag has become an international symbol, the use of different colours has long been a way for gay people to connect to each other in inhospitable environments. The most commonly used colour is lavender (made by mixing pink and blue together), which gained a reputation in the early 20th century as an effeminate colour, used in an insulting way to describe gay men.
Like the reclamation of the pink triangle, lavender has been turned into a positive representation of the LGBT community. Lavender Law is now a recognized term for the practice of law related to gay and lesbian legal issues. Lavender is also the name of Minnesota's LGBT magazine.
Many colours through history have held significance: green carnations were popularized by Oscar Wilde, blue is used in modern day Russia while red ties were used as a signal to other gay men in the late 19th and early 20th century in the USA.
Love and Pride Jewellery
As with the use of colours, the wearing of jewellery in a certain way has been used by gay people to recognize each other in certain settings. Nowadays, wearing a silver ring in each ear is used by gay men to 'advertise' their sexuality. In the 1970's and 1980's it was commonplace for gay men to wear a stud or post in their left ear. The popularity of all kinds of rainbow jewellery in today's gay and lesbian communities is an overt pride symbol.
International Symbol for Gay Rights
The lambda symbol, the Greek letter 'L', was originally chosen by the Gay Activists Alliance in New York, a group that worked for gay rights in the years following Stonewall. Stonewall was the impetus for the modern gay rights movement, when patrons of a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn fought back against a police raid. The lambda was officially declared the international symbol of gay and lesbian rights at the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh in 1974.
Lambda Legal, the biggest litigation entity in the USA, that fights solely to advance the rights of LGBT people and those with HIV as well as the American Lambda Literary Award take their name from this symbol.
Representations of Gay Pride
The original meaning of some gay pride symbols may have been lost or in some cases, never known. But for the gay community, seeing a gay pride symbol on a bumper sticker or noticing a tatoo of the lambda on someone or in the old days, seeing a red tie, the meaning was clear. It meant a friend was close by and that will always be the real meaning and value of the symbols, especially in nations where secrecy is still required. World Pride events, which Toronto will proudly host in 2014, use the opportunity to try and lift the necessity of using clandestine symbolism.
Lorah Delaney - Lorah is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a degree in Physical Education from the University of British Columbia and a ...
