On This Day In Gay History- June 25th... The Rainbow Flag Flies For The First Time

In Victorian England the color green was associated with homosexuality, as was lavender in the USA. The pink triangle was first used by Hitler’s Nazi Party to identify gay males & black triangle was similarly used to identify lesbians & others deemed “asocial”. The pink & black triangle symbols were reclaimed by the Gay communities in the early 1980s to signify our strength of spirit & willingness to survive oppression. As we slowly started gaining our rights, the symbols of oppression are gradually being replaced by the symbols of celebration. The most colorful of Gay symbols is the Rainbow flag, and its rainbow of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, & purple, which represent the diversity of our communities.

The first rainbow flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, in response to calls by activists for a symbol for the community. Baker designed a flag with 8 stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These colors were intended to represent respectively: sexuality, life, healing, sun, nature, art, harmony, & spirit. Baker dyed & sewed the material for the first flag himself, in a nod Betsy Ross.

When Baker approached a company to mass-produce the flags, he found out that “hot pink” was not commercially available. The flag was then reduced to 7 stripes.

Wanting to demonstrate the gay community’s strength & solidarity after the assassination of Harvey Milk & George Moscone, the Pride Committee decided to use Baker’s flag. The indigo stripe was eliminated so that the colors could be divided evenly along the parade route, 3 colors on one side & 3 on the other. Soon the 6 colors were incorporated into a 6-striped version that we use today.

In 1994 Baker moved to NYC & continued his creative work & activism. That year he created the world's largest flag in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

In 2003, to commemorate the Rainbow Flag’s 25th anniversary, Baker created a Rainbow Flag that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean in Key West. After the commemoration, he sent sections of this flag to more than 100 cities around the world.

Flag Day

Here is a shot of the front of The Husband's shop- BOYS’ FORT. This arrangement is in honor of Flag Day, not to be confused with Fag Day, or as the PC police dub it- PRIDE, which happens this Sunday in Portland, Oregon. I will spend Sunday getting loaded & listening to show tunes in the comfort of my home, because I Was Born This Way.

Spotted across the street from Boys' Fort, a vintage donut wagon. I want to purchase it. Really. I could roll around town tossing donuts to the Portland Proletariat.

Note my big tall boyfriend in the background. Yes, I live in a neighborhood featuring a giant Paul Bunyan.

Paul was built in 1959 for the Oregon Centennial Exposition & International Trade Fair, which was held in the Kenton neighborhood. He was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in January 2009.

Paul Bunyan makes me horny. He is just my type.

A New June Mix

June is an important month at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, & made even more so after Portland was dealt the coolest & wettest spring since records have been kept. The garden is certainly green. Yet your host is pale & petulant & peevish. The Husband & I have lived in Seattle or Portland for 30 years, but that was not enough of enlightened edification tp prepare for Spring 2001.

When I finally reach Saturday, I will have worked 16 days in a row, sometimes 15 hour days, part of the stretch I was sick. This was all because my assistant, went off & got married, wed to a young lady that I hired & they fell in love on the job. They have me to thank for their happiness. That is what I do, I spread happiness.

Saturday I will start a week long staycation. It will begin with 2 days of temperatures in the low 80s & blue skies. I am so very ready for some Vitamin D.

June warrants several of my custom playlists that are very much in demand in my circle. I allow myself to become unnecessarily gay in June, as it is Gay Pride in Seattle & Portland & the month of the Tony Awards, a high holiday at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. God in Her infinite generosity has aligned Gay Pride & the Tonys to be on the same day! Now that is Gay!

I celebrate Pride by not going to the parade or the Pride Festival at the waterfront. I have a deep disapproval for &a need to avoid large gatherings of people who are not usually positioned in a place they would normally never be, unless they are there to see me, which would be understandable. On Pride Day I stay home, smoke some pot & play show tunes rather loudly as I sing & dance along, a custom that dates back to 1969. I appreciate the continuity.

I offer up a just completed Custom Mix for my respite. If for any reason you find this mix to be amusing & alluring, simply email me with your snail mail address & I will send you one. That is how much I love you.



I give you Steve's At It Again Mix:

One For My Baby- Marlene Dietrich & Burt Bacharach

Boys Dont Cry- The Cure

When The Hangover Strikes- Squeeze

The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)- Tom Waits

Drinking Again- Dinah Washington

Something Cool- June Christy

I'm A Stranger Here Myself- Patti LuPone

I Love Men- Eartha Kitt

Calgary- Bon Iver

Crazy In Love- Antony & The Johnsons

Without You- Eddie Vedder

Rum & Coca Cola- Julio Iglesias

“Ten Men Waiting For Me At The Door? Send One Of Them Home, I'm Tired.” Mae West

This afternoon, I have been doing a mind riff on the Husband’s door art & the recognition that tomorrow is Portland Pride, & was attempting to think of songs about doors. I got the 2 subjects mixed up in my jumble of a brain:


Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door- Bob Dylan
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?- Rolling Stones
Society’s Child- Janis Ian
Who Can It Be Now?- Men At Work
Changed The Lock- Lucinda Williams

& the greatest “door song” & the great gay anthem (I never grow tired of it) of all time:
I Will Survive




Can you think of more? Happy Pride!

Portland Pride

I have often been ambivalent about Pride celebrations, do we really need to celebrate something that we intrinsically "are"? Redhead Pride? Left Handed Pride? This weekend is Portland's Pride celebration. The events include a pet parade, a Drag Race, the ubiquitous Pride Parade, a festival on the waterfront in Downtown, & a two day "block party" in the area that comes closest to being a "gay ghetto" in Portland. Do we need Pride Celebrations? I think we do & I think that they are a positive thing for our community & for the world at large. Pride is an annual celebration of gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender people or any person who has different sexual or gender identities. The concept of Pride declares that sexual preference & gender identity are part of a person’s biological make-up & something to be proud of. Someday, when nobody cares that we are gay, when you don't have to worry about being called names or attacked, when there is no hate, when we have full equal rights under the law... maybe we can give up on Pride, until then here are some reasons why Pride is important:

Remembering STONEWALL (40 years ago this month)
celebrating that you are not alone, that there are others like you
celebrate the freedom to be who you are
visibility & strength in numbers
it's political, it's cultural
have fun, get drunk, be silly
Dykes On Bikes
activism
showcase the diversity of the Gay community- Queens, Queers, Drag Queens, Seniors, youth, Presbyterians, PGE workers, P-Flag, marching bands, Gay Chorus, Firemen, Police, dogs, Police dogs, families...
protest
cruise
Marriage Equality
to get rained on

to show how far we have come:




Will you add to this list?