Friday, September 7, 2012

Where's the Queer Symbol? [Me]

Today I was browsing the internet looking for a symbol for 'Queer'. We all know the rainbow flag, and the venus & mars symbols, even the leather pride flag (if you don't know these, go look 'em up; I'll wait). But I'm not gay. I'm not straight, either. Well, I am; we aren't. We wrote a blog about being queer before. And I was thinking, surely there's a queer symbol. An easily identifiable something that shouts to those that know, "Hey, me too!" I can wear a Jayne hat or an Horgahn symbol or do the Vulcan salute to identify myself to fellow geeks. I can tuck an handkerchief in my back pocket to identify myself to fellow S&M folks (black and grey on the right). I can wear my collar to identify myself as taken in the kink crowd. But how do I identify myself as queer? I can't find anything.

The closest I found is the Lambda. From something I found online: "Lambda represents synergy, the concept that the whole is greater than its independent parts. Spartan platoons consisting solely of men who loved men are said to have had this symbol emblazoned on their shields. In 1970, the Gay Activist Alliance in New York chose the lambda as a symbol of gay liberation, and in 1974, the first International Gay Rights Conference adopted it as an international symbol. Initially, some gay men used the lambda as a way to meet each other without fear of discrimination." So it's a gay symbol, but I like the description - "the whole i greater than its independent parts." And from http://www.lambda.org/symbols.htm I found things like:

  • Simply, the Greek letter "L" stands for "liberation." 
  • The Greek Spartans believed that the lambda represented unity. 
  • The Romans took it as meaning "the light of knowledge shining into the darkness of ignorance." 


I wish 'Queer' had its own symbol, separate from 'Gay' or 'Kinky'. If anyone knows of one, please tell me about it.

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