Many of these flowers have deep connections to queer icons or are echoed in other queer symbols. (Even more complex emotions like, say, bashfulness, were associated with their own flowers, which surely wasn’t confusing at all.) It makes sense, then, that queer communities would find both beauty and belonging by continuing this interesting tradition. Today, the lavender flower still appears in newer symbols of queerness. The Japanese word for rose is pronounced “bara,” and experienced a resurgence in queer media in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Persons: CNN —, Lavender, Sappho, Betty Friedan, Violet Violets, “, violets, Lesbos ”, Renée Vivien, Edouard Bourdet, Pansy “ Pansy ”, pansy, ”, Paul Harfleet, Rose, Japan’s, Oscar Wilde, Windermere’s Fan, ” Wilde Organizations: CNN, Stonewall, National Organization for Women Locations: Europe, New York City, Lesbos, Paris, British, ”