It's Pride Weekend.Quick question - The Gay and lesbian community uses the rainbow as their symbol. Okay, that's nice. So does Jessie Jackson and the Rainbow Push Coalition.
Why?
I had to look it up...
The Rainbow (or Gay Pride) Flag was created by artist and vexillographer [a person who designs or makes flags. I had to look THAT up too!] Gilbert Baker, in 1978. The flag debuted at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. It has since been used around the world as a symbol of LGBT unity in many variations.Sex and magic were sold off to the HyperGlobalSuper Corporation in the mid nineties, apparently. But you didn't answer my question. Why use a rainbow as your symbol?
The original flag had eight stripes from top to bottom: pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (magic), indigo/blue (serenity), and violet (spirit). Within a year, the flag had shed two of its stripes—pink and violet. According to Gilbert, they "ran out of pink dye." The violet stripe was later taken out to create an even number of stripes on the flag.
I understand the pink triangle. That makes sense and once you understand that the triangle IS the symbol of gay oppression in Nazi Germany. A bit harsh, but a powerful symbol. No one is going to question that, and you own it. That's super branding.But, the dispersion of light as it travels through a triangular prism? Really? Why that?
What's worse, the rainbow was a symbol from God to after he wiped out all of humanity save one family, off the face of his earth ever again. God is kind of funny like that. At least, that's what I remember from my original teaching of the Genesis story in pre-K Sunday school.
What doesn't make sense here is why would the gay and lesbian community take that symbol? If you're going to take things out of the bible - why not salt? You know, Sodom and Gomorrah? All that jazz? That is infinitely more fun than a rainbow. And the story kind of goes with the lifestyle. It's in your face. Well, okay, I agree that a salt shaker would look really stupid on a Honda Fit, but you know what? So does a rainbow sticker.
Why not use a butterfly? Think about that for a moment. Wouldn't a butterfly, with the whole chrysalis and 'coming out' of the cocoon make a hell of a lot more sense than a rainbow?It's iconic. It's the least creepy of all the insects out there. It's a good brand an no one is using it.
And if you don't like that, how about a Rainbow Butterfly?
That's pretty greedy, gays.
ReplyDeleteWhy not the fruitcake?
ReplyDeleteDude.
ReplyDeleteThe rainbow gig is all about inclusion man. Like "e pluribus unum" or something. Totally.
Plus, you even posted a graphic that I thought explained it perfectly. See the stripey-ness of the work camp garb? Notice a pattern?
The butterfly thing, that's good. In fact, I may have seen something like that on a Cabrio back in Boystown, who knows. Am sure they sell them.
As for the salt meme, that was the dude's wife who--like every last damn hebrew woman in the bible--would not listen to Jehovah. So he made the straight but insolent gal into salt. Not b/c she was gay, but b/c she wanted to watch the City burn.
Those stripes aren't colorful and go the other direction. They're straight.
ReplyDeleteThe flag was created by Gilbert Baker, a former board of supervisor in San Francisco. It was first shown at San Francisco�s gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.
ReplyDeleteBaker, who is formally known as the "gay Betsy Ross," dreamt of being an artist. In the early 1970s, Baker worked all day and night creating visuals for gay parades and marches.
Baker was asked to create a symbol to represent the gay community. He sewed up some colored fabric together to create a rainbow.
This rainbow fabric is now famously known as the rainbow flag.
Replacing the upside down pink triangle used by Hitler's Third Reich to identify gay men, the rainbow now represents the gay community.
The rainbow was first introduced with eight stripes - fuchsia, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet.
The fuchsia stands for sexuality; red, orange and yellow stand for healing, sunlight and nature, respectively. Turquoise, blue and violet, stand for art, serenity and spirit.
The high demand for rainbow flags in 1978 caused the production of the flags to exclude fuchsia because of the scarcity of the ink.
The flag was changed for the last time in 1979 without fuchsia and turquoise. This flag is popularly used today in annual gay pride parades and protests all over the country for gay civil rights.
There are other flags that represent the community besides the rainbow flag. The addition of the color black, representing the people who died from AIDS, is said to be removed once a cure is found for AIDS.
Many meanings have been attached to the rainbow symbol. The use of a similar flag was known for internationalism and unity of all people on earth during the early 1970s.
Ever since the 1980s the flag has been used to represent gay pride and rights, as well as the diversity of it.
The rainbow flag was used all around the world as a sign of diversity, hope and of yearning.
Waffleman, I really hope that was a dry attempt at humor.
ReplyDeleteIf so, you're a genius.
If not....time to finally get that GED.
(I mean, how can you preach the gospel of waffles & not get it?)
Great gag, Waffleman.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see such a robust discussion on the pages of Blasphemes.
Actually, the buttefly is often a simple for specifically transgendered people, as it symbolizes transitioning from one stage in life to another (male to female or vise-versa). Old post, but I'd rather reply a year later than leave it unnoticed for any possible future visits.
ReplyDelete