Things You'll Need:
- GLBT Pride/support Products
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Step 1
Contemplate the irony of the red tie - way before red power ties were in, a red tie meant a man was gay, bringing a whole new light to the President's "don't ask don't tell policy".
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Step 2
Look for four diamonds placed in a pattern to form a larger diamond, but you're not likely to find them associated with the gay community anymore. The so-called harlequin diamonds were the symbol for the gay Mattachine Society, beginning in 1955.
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Step 3
Travel back in time only a few years, and gays would have been more likely to display a pink triangle than anything, accepting the symbol placed on gay men by the Nazis and turning it into a statement of pride.
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Step 4
Go back in time a few more years, and the Greek letter lambda was the symbol of choice. In 1970, the Gay Activists Alliance chose the letter, which looks like a lowercase "y" flipped upside-down, as the symbol for the gay movement, and the International Gay Rights Congress adopted it in 1974.
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Step 5
Glance around any gay area today, however, and rainbows dominate the scene. The rainbow image has evolved since it was first created as a flag by Gilbert Baker in 1978.
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Step 6
Be glad rainbows are in, because it could have been something significantly less appealing. In 1974, Bernie Toal and Tom Morganti, Boston gay rights activists, began a subway ad campaign using a lavender rhinoceros as the symbol for gay people.
