The Rainbow Flag just around Gender Bend Monday Nov 23, 2009
Why do gays use the rainbow flag as their flag?
Also, why do some gay girls prefer other gay girls who dress and have hairdo’s like 14 year old boys?
We use the rainbow flag so that we can distinguish which Subarus belong to lesbians and which belong to soccer moms.
Actually, the rainbow flag was first used to represent the LGBT community at the San Francisco Gay Freedom parade on June 25th 1978. It was designed by Gilbert Baker to represent diversity and that parade was led by Harvey Milk. In an article in the Independent Gilbert says in reference to designing the flag, ""I almost instantly thought of using the rainbow. To me, it was the only thing that could really express our diversity, beauty and our joy. I was astounded nobody had thought of making a rainbow flag before because it seemed like such an obvious symbol for us."
The rainbow flag has definitely caught on. I found that if you search "rainbow flag" on Google it is difficult to find any reference to the rainbow that is not in reference to the LGBT community. Rainbow flags as a symbol however, did exist before 1978-thank you Wikipedia- all the way back to the 1400s actually. The general agreement on using the rainbow though is that it represents, hope, social change, and diversity. In the bible God shows Noah a rainbow to say, "hey, no more floods, I promise...unless one day you melt all of the polar ice caps and then perhaps more floods." So again it is a message of hope.
At the end of the Independent article it mentions that Gilbert Baker helped to design the rainbow Absolut bottle to celebrate the anniversary of the rainbow flag. I have mixed feelings on that. It is great that such a public company would freely embrace the gay community because many corporations fear losing sales if they say they are okay with gay. On the other hand the symbol of of hope and diversity and beauty and joy and vodka? I guess the key to acceptance in this country comes through understanding, non-descriminatory laws, and mass marketing.
As for the second question, I think a few things are going on. First of all, I think that many women, when they first cut their hair short and stopped "having" to wear dresses felt like nothing in the world was better than that. They rocked their short hair and baggy jeans. Then other women looked at those newly happy and confident short-haired women and thought, "wow, you look hot wearing your short hair, happiness, and confidence." That is one scenario. I will get more information. Any input from the greater public is also welcome.
