Gay and lesbian symbols

Each of these symbols has a unique meaning that holds importance within the LGBTQ community. 1. Rainbow. The most recognizable symbol that represents the LGBTQ community today is the rainbow. Strewn across flags, banners, and pins, the rainbow symbolizes the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. In this guest blog Gillian Murphy, Curator for Equality, Rights and Citizenship at LSE Library , explores the symbols created through activism, logo competitions, resistance, and community. The use of symbols and colours is an important way for groups to convey messages, communicate with others, and to build a visual identity. The gender symbols for male and female are traditionally derived from astrological signs and mythological meanings representing Mars god of war with shield and spear and Venus mirror of Venus, goddess of love and beauty respectively.

These are just some of many sapphic symbols I’ve slowly been discovering that signal lesbian identity, pride, and history. Beyond the rainbow flag and woven into objects, colors, and even emojis, each carrying its own unique story. Let’s decode them. Ace refers to the shortened word of asexuality. Asexual used the four aces found in a deck of playing cards to symbolise their identity and distinguish between different kinds of asexual in the spectrum. The double Venus symbol takes the Venus symbol, often representing the female sex in both some scientific fields and astrology and doubles and interlocks it, creating a symbol for the lesbian community.

Over the course of its history, the LGBTQ community has adopted certain symbols for self-identification to demonstrate unity, pride, shared values, and allegiance to one another. These symbols communicate ideas, concepts, and identity both within their communities and to mainstream culture. Here are some modern and historic symbols of alliance, protest and pride. Floriography is a fancy term for the coded language of flowers, and has been used for thousands of years in Europe, Asia and Africa. It then became a light-hearted code for men who were attracted to other men.

Much like the rainbow flag or the handkerchief system, certain flowers have been used to identify an LGBT+ community, or conversely, secretly signal an LGBT+ identity. Some of the most well-known events in LGBT+ history reference flowers, from the Lavender Menace protest and the Lavender Scare persecutions to Oscar Wilde’s green carnations. Designed by Gilbert Baker, the colors in the flag represent the diversity of the community and have come to represent LGBTQIA pride everywhere in the world it is displayed. Use of inverted triangles as a symbol of gay pride began to be widespread in the early s Gay Liberation Movement. Since the pink triangle has been generally a gay male symbol, a pink triangle in a black circle, or simply a black triangle, is sometimes used by lesbians.