When Oreo posted a pro-LGBT image on their Facebook they were condemned by the religious right and many conservative consumers boycotted the company ( Burra & Wong, 2012).Gilbert Baker in 2012. ( “LGBT marketing takeaways,” 2012) But taking a pro-LGBT stance does come at a cost. “If Canada’s LGBT community were a country, it would come between Bulgaria and Sudan in terms of GDP.” said Laurence Bernstein, founder of. LGBT community makes up roughly 10% of the population, so they’re a powerful consumer segment that many marketers are trying to appeal to. The rainbow is also increasingly being used in marketing. Because of this the rainbow has been emblazoned on everything imaginable, from flip-flops to pet tutus.
Like other flags, the rainbow is in the public domain, allowing for royalty-free commercial reproduction. In the wake of the LGBT movement many conservatives are looking for new ways to keep gays out of sight and out of mind (Take for example the recently proposed bills seeking to let business owners refuse service to gays and lesbians), and a visual representation allows supporters of LGBT rights to be seen even when they won’t be heard.īesides its use as a political tool the rainbow holds a lot of cultural capital.
One of the most important uses of the rainbow is providing an easy-to-reproduce visual symbol of LGBT rights. One example is the Equality House, the rainbow-colored headquarters for that sits across the street from the headquarters of the Westboro Baptist Church, the group famous for protesting funerals of gays and lesbians with hateful signs saying ‘God Hates Fags’. The rainbow is also often used for political protests in favor of tolerance and LGBT rights. Rainbows are flown during pride month and gay pride parades as a message that being gay is okay. The rainbow has become politicized due to its association with gays and lesbians, a group at the center of controversy among conservative Americans who disagree with their lifestyle. ( Moore, 2001 ) Uses of the Rainbow in Culture Purple was also popular symbol of gay pride in the 1960s and 1970s, and lavender has now become a symbol of lesbians in particular. Yellow was used for the same purpose in Australia. During the Holocaust gay men were forced to wear pink triangles on their sleeves, and that symbol has since been reclaimed by the gay community, though leaving some uncomfortable with its origin. Oscar Wilde famously wore a green carnation on his lapel, a symbol thought to have been used by Londoners and Parisians of his time to express their orientation. Gilbert Baker ( Hallowell, 2012) Other colors in LGBT historyīright colors were historically used by closeted gay people to discreetly signal their homosexuality to each other.
That really fit us as a people because we are all of the colors. It’s beautiful, all of the colors, even the colors you can’t see. The rainbow is a symbol and celebration of the diversity of genders and sexual orientations. Later the remaining seven colors were eventually dropped to six with the exclusion of indigo to keep the number of colors even. Baker’s original flags were hand-made and had 8 colors, but when the flag’s popularity demanded mass production pink had to be dropped because it wasn’t commercially available. Hippies are sometimes associated with the rainbow because of its use during peace rallies in the 1960s and 1970s. Rainbows are also used the world over as as a sign of diversity, inclusiveness, and hope and rainbow flags have appeared all over history from the Inca Empire to Italy’s cooperative movement and during the German ‘Peasant’s War’ ( Conradt, 2011 )īut the rainbow flag known internationally today first appeared in San Francisco in 1978. Gilbert Baker was commissioned to design a flag for gays to hold high in that year’s pride parade and his original design included 8 colors, each with a different intended meaning.Īfter the 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk, an openly gay politician in San Francisco, the flag became a symbol of solidarity. The rainbow is still being used by some Christian groups in their iconography ( Wickman, 2012 ) The rainbow is mentioned in the Bible as a symbol of peace and promise from God to Noah that there would never again be a great flood.