One of the first generic symbol for being gay to take hold was the Greek letter, lambda, which is equivalent to our letter “L”. Therefore it was a way to signal to others that “I’m gay too” at the same time as minimizing the risk of getting bashed by haters who wouldn’t have a clue as to what the symbol meant. Of course, it was, at the same time, quite subtle because the symbols used were ones that often only those “in the know” would recognize. Starting with the rise of the Gay Liberation movements in the 70s, wearing a badge became an instant way to show our colours, so to speak to proudly come out in public. Certain symbols on them predominated at different times. Moving into the 1970s and 1980s, most of my badges were collected at lesbian/gay/queer events of those decades. In the centre is my nametag for my job at Ontario Place in my infamous coming out summer of 1971 which I talk about here. Canada’s 100 years of Confederation pin given out to all schoolchildren in 1967.my pin for 10 blood donations – those were the days when I was allowed to donate blood.my Bronze medallion for lifesaving – as close as I ever got to a sport.achievement pins from my high school in suburban Toronto.I doubt I am the only consistent attendee at Sunday School who ended up in gay bars a few years after that achievement.
Given that I was “ the best little boy in the world“, I was particularly proud of the pins on the right showing my 7 years of consecutive attendance at my Sunday School in suburban Toronto at the local Donway United (Methodist) Church. No badges as such, but lots of enamel pins along with what every stylish teenager (that’s me) from the 60s would have:
I’m going to start with a look at what I found in that musty bag from my teenage/high school years. Into the new century, usage has plummeted, at least in my experience, but that may just be because I’m aging!įunnily, just as I’m writing this post, a badge for my municipal political party of choice here in Montreal, Projet Montréal, landed on my doorstep, so they’re not dead yet. Throughout the 70s and 80s and into the 90s, badge wearing was almost ubiquitous and certainly near compulsory at any political demonstration. Badges provided a cheap and easy opportunity for us to do that.
#IS A TRIANGLE A GAY PRIDE SYMBOL FREE#
Hippiesīadges, in various forms, have existed for more than 150 years but I would say that they didn’t come into mass usage until the hippie/counterculture revolution of the 60s where we all wanted to not only wear our heart on our free love sleeve, but also to wear our political opinions and identities on our clothing. For North Americans, badges are what sheriffs wear, but we’ll manage. Since the vast majority of my badges come from my UK days, that is the term I will use. What are called badges in the UK and Australia are called buttons in Canada and the US. I decided that, for this post, instead of continuing the roughly chronological story of my life, I would instead tell you the stories behind some of the badges in this antique collection of mine.įirst of all – terminology.
#IS A TRIANGLE A GAY PRIDE SYMBOL FULL#
Looking for those old badges led me to re-discover a musty-smelling bag full of around 175 old badges, buttons and pins of mine sending all kinds of memories whirling through my head. In my last post, I talked about the trouble that I and my fellow lecturers got into for wearing anti-racism badges at our college.