by Yudha Aditya

Created on: February 20, 2010

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender – often called by LGBT – are now having their own part in society. Historically, gay men have been through a lot of things from punishment to death by Hitler in World War II, to present life when freedom is no longer hard to reach. Nowadays, gay men can live freely and make a good living in society. We also have seen many gay men have given good contribution for human life in general. In some countries, like Netherlands, gay marriages are allowed while some others give a real constriction for gay lifestyle and everything related to it. But whatever people think of them, however the way people see them; gay men will always live among us with all appreciations yet all insults, since not every person can accept the way they are.

Symbolism has been one important thing for gay men. It represents pride, existence, and also shows movements that have been through for many years ago. It is also helpful for gay men who are willing to be recognized, by using accessories with gay symbols. The symbols are used often as marks, so that gay people can recognize each other. Some bars, restaurants, and public services sometimes use the symbols to show that they are gay friendly, without have to make straight people aware of it.

Gay symbols can be divided into four main groups. They are flags, triangles, and gender symbols with history lies under each of them.

1. Flags

There are several kinds of flag symbols among LGBT people:

Rainbow Flags

This flag has been widely used as a symbol of gay and lesbian community in general. Composed by eight colors, hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple, rainbow flag was first developed by Gilbert Baker, an artist, in 1978 at San Francisco. The color stripes itself have their own meaning; pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, blue for art, indigo for harmony, and purple for spirit. In need of gay and lesbian symbols for San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade year after year, Baker decided to bring his idea in a form of large prototype rainbow flags for the 1978 parade. It was a big hit. But when Baker wanted to mass produce the flag in San Francisco Flag Co. for the 1979 parade, he had to remove the pink color since it was not commercially available. Later, indigo color was also removed by The Pride Parade Committee so that the colors could be evenly divisible along the parade route in 1979.

So now, we know the

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