Lez talk: Do rabows make you gay?

WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?

God signed the rabow to symbolize somethg far greater and far more glor than homosexualy, and if those the homosexual muny tly unrstood and embraced the symbol they are wavg their hands, they would experience te eedom and peace.

I have bad news for the gay muny: God wants his rabow least that's the news g om one of God's Earth-bound spokpeople, Bryan Fischer, a Christian rad host for the Amerin Fay Associatn and likely future star of "Law & Orr: Dive Victims Un. "On Sunday morng, rather than prayg for fivens for his sistence that "homosexualy gave Adolph Hler, " Fischer oped on Twter: "Worst example of cultural appropriatn ever: LGBTs stole the rabow om God.

I don't know if this was tentnal or cintal, but Fischer's Sunday tweet me two days after the ath of Gilbert Baker, a gay rights activist who, 1978, stched a rabow-lored flag that would bee the ternatnal symbol of gay a 2008 terview wh the Brish newspaper The Inpennt, Baker explaed how the flag me to be:"In 1978, when I thought of creatg a flag for the gay movement there was no other ternatnal symbol for than the pk triangle, which the Nazis ed to intify homosexuals ncentratn mps. He was iends wh Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected supervisor of San Francis, and Milk enuraged him to e up wh a symbol for the did, and spread across San Francis and around the world, beg a ubiquo marker of LBGT pri. I n't image the pri Baker felt seeg those flags flyg en masse at gay pri paras or wavg outsi bs or hung the ont wdows of hom across the stris ma unr the flag he created are monumental, om marriage equaly for gay and lbian upl to the fact that many of our kids n't fathom why anyone would re whom another person as irrelevant as someone like Fischer may be the grand scheme of thgs, his tweet Sunday shows why Baker's flag remas Tmp admistratn has already stck down a requirement that feral ntractors show they are not discrimatg agast workers based on sexual orientatn or genr inty.

DO THE RABOW REALLY MEAN GAY PRI?

Together, the Pri Flag's six rabow lors symbolize hope, and each also has s own meang:Red: LifeOrange: HealgYellow: SunlightGreen: NatureBlue: Peace or serenyPurple: SpirLGBTQ Pri flags go beyond the classic 's what each one meansLGBTQ glossary: Defns every good ally should knowThe history of the Gilbert Baker Pri Flag In the 1970s, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official California, challenged activist Gilbert Baker to sign a symbol of hope for the gay muny. "Harvey Milk was a iend of me, an important gay lear San Francis the ’70s, and he rried a really important msage about how important was to be visible, " said Baker an terview wh the Mm of Morn Art 2015. He was missned to create a flag by another gay in, polician Harvey Milk, for San Francis’s annual pri cisn to enlist Baker proved serendipo, as the ia of a flag to reprent the gay and lbian muny had occurred to him two years earlier.

As Baker told the Mm of Morn Art durg a 2015 terview, he had been spired by the celebratns markg Ameri’s bicentennial 1976, notg that the nstant display of stars and strip ma him realize the cultural need for a siar rallyg sign for the gay muny. And as a stgglg drag performer who was acctomed to creatg his own garments, he was well-equipped to sew the soon-to-be inic the time, the most monly ed image for the burgeong gay rights movement was the pk triangle, a symbol ed by the Nazis to intify homosexuals.

At the top was hot pk, which reprented sex, red for life, orange for healg, yellow signifyg sunlight, green for nature, turquoise to reprent art, digo for harmony, and fally vlet at the bottom for the help of close to 30 volunteers workg the attic of the Gay Communy Center San Francis, Baker was able to nstct the first draft of the now world-renowned rabow flag.

Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC5378595NIHMSID: NIHMS843014AbstractWhile the pri rabow has been part of polil and social terventn for s, few have rearched how lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer young people perceive and e the symbol. As part of a larger study on supportive lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth environments, we nducted 66 go-along terviews wh lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth people om Massachetts, Mnota and Brish Columbia.

Keywords: Lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, LGBT, youth, wellbeg, semtics, rabow, pri flagIntroductnLbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth face greater risk of physil and mental health hazards than their heterosexual peers, cludg substance abe, sexual risk-takg, suicidaly and prsn (D’Augelli 2003; Eisenberg and Rnick 2006; Friedman et al.

Factors fluencg the negative health out clu discrimatn, harassment and physil harm, lack of fay and social support and ternalised homophobia, which culmate experienc of mory strs, or a unique set of strsors experienced by those on society’s margs (Chard et al. 2015) important nuance to mory strs arguments, a study of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth’s higher rat of self-stctive behavrs, McDermott, Roen and Surfield (2008) argue that is the general ntext of environmental homophobia that is distrsg to youth, not the sexual mory inti themselv. In attempts to addrs environmental homophobia and genr-based bullyg, public policy rearchers have enuraged school teachers, unsellors, health staff and admistrators to vt ‘safe space’ iativ by g stickers pictg the inic symbols of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer-associated rabow ‘pri flag’ to proclaim certa areas as safe (Payne and Smh 2013; Ratts et al.

CHASG THE RABOW: LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR AND QUEER YOUTH AND PRI SEMTICS

2013; Vacro, Augt, and Kennedy 2011) the out of bullyg and other strsors lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth experience (Rivers 2000), symbols of pri may be particularly important. Policy makers hope the visibily of the symbol n help, but rearchers utn that the mere display of such rabows or ‘safe space’ stickers as part of many of the iativ seldom requir trag that aids teachers their practil support of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth (Payne and Smh 2013).

Trag teachers and other muny members how to support sexual mory youth is cril; however, this study shows there may be more advantag om the display of pri symbols than ially rabow as a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer symbolIn June 2015, the rabow flag appeared on ernment buildgs and landmarks across the USA celebratn of the US Supreme Court cisn legalisg same sex marriage. Lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muni, for example, have a long tradn of g nocuo objects such as the placement of ear piercgs, the lour and placement of handkerchiefs and hair styl to signal inty and muny (Berlant and Freeman 1992; Bryan-Wilson and Fischer 2015) s 1978 creatn by the artist Gilbert Baker, the symbol of the rabow has been creasgly ed to reprent lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer pri and solidary (Dreyf 2015).

To approach the rabow flag through semtics is to regnise as a signifier of nnoted meangs that are produced, refed and renegotiated wh each rearch on lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer symbolism, cludg the rabow flag, has generally been limed to adult populatns wh a cynil foc on palist nsumptn (Crowley, Harré, and Lunt 2007; Milligan 2013; Philippm 1999).

WHAT DO LGBTQ+ STAND FOR AND WHAT DO THE RABOW GAY PRI FLAG MEAN?

Instead of focg on the rabow’s meang for the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muni, rearch has foced on how symbols n be ed to market to lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people whout alienatg others (Oakenfull and Greenlee 2005; Philippm 1999). However, rearch to healthy lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth velopment do so wh few or no mentns of the rabow as a signifier that participat the productn of what healthy velopment n look like (Renow 2004; Shippee 2011). This study monstrat that the symbol of the rabow flag holds meang for ntemporary lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth over and above how is marketed to them media and nsumable products, and is importantly associated wh protective factors like school and muny the absence of normalisg cultural nversatns or exposure to lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people school curricula (Eisenberg et al.

Based on our terviews wh 66 lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth across Massachetts, Mnota and Brish Columbia, we argue that youth are engagg active procs of meang nstctn through displays of affiliatn, productns of posive affect and navigatn g the rabow symbolism. As they create associatns wh the rabow, they often physilly and emotnally move towards lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer symbols and e the rabow signifier as a navigatn vice their physil and social spac. MethodsThe current study is a subset of a larger study lled Rearch & Edutn on Supportive & Protective Environments for Queer Teens (Project RESPEQT), which aims to explore, measure and tt muny-based protective factors that fluence lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer young people’s healthy velopment.

Between November 2014 and July 2015, six female graduate stunt terviewers (cludg one queer and one lbian) wh experience workg wh sexual mory youth and backgrounds anthropology, soclogy, nursg, social work and public health, met wh 66 lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer/qutng youth between the ag of 14 and 19 23 distct muny settgs across Mnota, Massachetts and Brish Columbia.

THE DISTURBG SECRET MSAGE OF THE ‘GAY PRI’ FLAG

A diverse range of populatn-nsy (12, 000 to 65, 000) was also tentnal as a way to help intify siar lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer youth supportive muny and environmental quali across different geographil 1Participant mographic tails.

Do the rabow really mean gay pri? - Answers

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WHAT DO THE RABOW MEAN FOR GAYS?

DO THE RABOW REALLY MEAN GAY PRI?