Lesbian is the term for a gay woman. The term is also sometimes used by nonbinary people who prefer women.
History
The word lesbian comes from the name of the Greek island Lesbos, the birthplace of the poet Sappho (the origin of the word sapphic).[1] The use of lesbian to mean gay woman or female homosexuality dates back to 1732.[2]
Romantic and sexual relationships between women go back far in human history, including to ancient times.
Flag
At present, there have been at least sixty four different lesbian flag design proposals.[3]
The earliest flag to represent lesbianism is the original rainbow flag, created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 to represent the entire LGBT community.[4][5] In the original version, the top stripe was pink, representing sexuality, followed by a red stripe for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. Contemporary versions of the flag usually simplify this into a more basic rainbow.
In 1999, Sean Campbell introduced the first flag design specifically for lesbians, with a white labrys and a black triangle on a purple background.[6]
In 2010, Wordpress blogger Natalie McCray announced her proposed design for a lipstick lesbian flag, using a design plaigarized from Fausto Fernós' 2008 cougar pride flag.[7][8][9] McCray's lipstick lesbian flag is not intended for all lesbians, just lipstick lesbians, meaning all other kinds of lesbians are excluded. Variations upon this stolen design have since become very popular on Tumblr.
Another flag design is by Tumblr user Apersnicketylemon. The color associations are as follows: purple for non-binary and trans lesbians (also to represent how violets were historically given between women to represent their love), pink for lipstick and femme lesbians (and to represent the beauty of feminine love), grey for aspec lesbians (and to represent the difficulty to navigating a 'grey area' of society). and blue to represent butch lesbians and gender nonconformity.[10]
At present, there is no clear consensus about which lesbian flag design to use.
References
- ↑ Etymonline: lesbian (adj)
- ↑ Merriam-Webster: lesbian (adj)
- ↑ The Lesbian Flag: How did we get here?
- ↑ Gilbert Baker - Rainbow Flag
- ↑ How Did the Rainbow Flag Become an LGBT Symbol?
- ↑ The Complete Guide to Queer Pride Flags
- ↑ Lipstick Lesbian Flag
- ↑ The Lipstick Lesbian Flag idea was stolen from a drag queen
- ↑ Cougar Pride Flag designed by Fausto Fernós
- ↑ Lesbian Flag by apersnicketylemon