According to the book Sunshine and Rainbows, a study of gay culture in Queensland, “If you wanted to attract the attention of the same sex, displaying a pair of bright yellow socks often did the trick.” During the Holocaust, gay men were forced to wear pink triangles, and that symbol has since been reclaimed by the gay community.
Yellow was used for the same purpose in Australia. Novelist Robert Hitchens described the phenomenon in 1894’s The Green Carnation, and the book in part spurred Wilde’s trial for sodomy. Oscar Wilde was famous for wearing a trademark green carnation on his lapel, and the flower is thought to have been used by him and other Londoners and Parisians of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries to quietly express their orientation. Why is gay pride represented by rainbows?Ĭloseted gay people historically used bright colors to signal their homosexuality to each other. Streets around the world will be decked in rainbows this week as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community celebrates LGBT Pride Month.
