Symbolism of Flowers in the LGBTQ+ Movement

By Jill Brooke

Symbolism of Flowers in LGBTQ+ History: A Guide to Meaning & LGBTQ+ History

Mora and Mazar. Courtesy of Oscar Mora

Floral Contributions to LGBTQ+ Pride: The Symbolism of Flowers

Florist Lewis Miller highlights how florists have long played an important role in pride events, bringing their creativity and talent to celebrations. “Certain industries attract creative types,” says Lewis, whose Flower Flashes have delighted people across the country. “The industry is and has been largely made of gay men.”

This creative contribution is far from minor. The lush floral floats seen in parades captivate audiences and have been instrumental in opening hearts and minds to the LGBTQ+ cause. Oscar Mora also has been part of these parades for decades.

Pride Month itself has deep historical roots. It began as a commemoration of the Stonewall riots in June 1969, sparked by a police raid at a New York City gay bar, The Stonewall Inn.

In 1970, the first anniversary of the riots was marked with demonstrators marching through Greenwich Village, carrying flowers in solidarity. Historians recognize this as the first LGBTQ+ pride march, where the symbolism of flowers—representing solidarity, love, and hope—was prominently displayed.

Eight years later, artist Gilbert Baker debuted the now-iconic rainbow flag at the San Francisco pride event. This flag became a powerful symbol of Gay Pride, and in the years that followed, flowers grew to be another meaningful way to express and celebrate the LGBTQ+ movement.

Courtesy of Lewis Miller Design

Courtesy of Lewis Miller Design

Baker had wanted each color to represent a message. Red represents life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony and purple for spirit.

When the flag was first created, there was a pink color for sexuality, which was removed for design purposes.

However, flowers often have a hot pink shade and are included in the design.

“Flowers have been a part of a coded language within the LBGTQ+ community for centuries,” says  historian Sarah Prager, the author of Rainbow Revolutionaries. “There are many floral symbols besides dyed roses including green carnation, violets, lavender and pansies.”

Prager helps us explore each flower and its history in the LGBTQ+ movement.

1. Green Carnation

Writer and wit Oscar Wilde popularized wearing a green carnation as a gay symbol in 1892. He instructed his friends to wear them on their lapels to the opening of his comedy, Lady Windermere’s Fan. Subsequently, it became a coded symbol that a man was attracted to men. 

2. Violets

Turns out Sappho (c. 630-c.570), the Greek poet who lived on the island of Lesbos, often referenced violets in her ancient poems creating this association for female love. Girls frolicked adorned in garlands and had “many crowns of violets.”

“Together you set before more

and many scented wreaths

made from blossoms

around your soft throat…

…with pure, sweet oil

…you anointed me”

The coded reference to violets in the pantheon of female love endured for centuries.

In fact, a scandal occurred in 1926 when a female character in the play The Captive sent a bunch of violets to another female character. Literary scholar Sherrie Inness reported in the National Women’s Studies Association Journal that the theme of lesbianism in this play led to an uproar and calls for censorship. Subsequently, the New York City district attorney’s office shut down the production in 1927.

Violet sales also plummeted as a result of the association.

However, at the play’s showing in Paris, some women wore the flower on their lapels as a show of support.

In his play, Suddenly Last Summer, Tennessee Williams also weaved violets and its symbolism into the plot by naming a character Mrs. Violet Venable.  It’s also why purple is in the rainbow flag.

3. Pansies

Marcel Proust’s Sodome et Gomorrhe referred to male-male courtship as being similar to the process of flower fertilization. Men were called “an evening botanist,” “buttercup,” or “horticultural lad.”

However, as Christopher Looby wrote in his book, Flowers of Manhood, pansy is the term that stuck—especially for those who dressed flamboyantly. The bold bright colors of the flower may have been what triggered the association.

As a result, many gay bars throughout history had names such as “The Pansy Club.”

There were periods when these bars were more accepted than others. In Harlem in 1869, the masquerade balls became popular. Later in the 1920s, drag queens like Jean Malin helped popularize gay-friendly bars in major cities, a trend that historian George Chauncey called “the Pansy Craze.”

Whereas the late 19th century restricted gay male activity to the seedy red-light district under the elevated train of the Bowery, with an even less visible lesbian life largely restricted to private salons for upper-class women, prohibition allowed the first emergence of a visible gay and lesbian life.

Prohibition forced all kinds of people to mix—all in search of the same illicit drink, and created a culture of at least mild tolerance if not outright “anything goes.” That shift raised awareness for outdated moralism of the Temperance movement.

These popular clubs were able to exist without pushback for a while. But the rise of Nazism and Hollywood homophobia, due to the Hays Commission, drove the clubs back underground. Post-war created more conservatism that resulted in the 1960s where love and tolerance were embraced once again in cities. 

4. Roses

Roses are a flower sometimes referenced for the trans community. “There is a phrase, ‘Give us our roses while we are still here,” says Prager. “Trans people are murdered at alarming rates and the roses are associated with mourning since you lay roses on a grave.”  Therefore, roses are a symbol to honor them when they are alive and see the beauty within. This concept was also addressed in a photography exhibit called “The Rose Project.” 

5. Lavender

Lavender has been associated with both gay men and women.

“Lavender boy” was a term used for gay men in the 1920s. A guy who had any characteristic not deemed masculine enough would be accused of having “a streak of lavender.”

In fact, in 1926, historian Carl Sandburg once referred to Abraham Lincoln as having “a streak of lavender” which ran through him.

For women, lavender became associated with lesbians wanting to be included in the women’s movement.

As historian Naoko Shibusawa wrote in The Lavender Scare and Empire: Rethinking Cold War Antigay Politics, Betty Friedan labeled their involvement “the Lavender Menace.”

Lesbian feminist Rita Mae Brown and other activists fought back in 1970 by disrupting a women’s event wearing T-shirts that said “Lavender Menace.” The crowd supported them and welcomed them into the fold. Later in 1971, lesbian rights became part of the platform as a “legitimate concern of feminism.”

One writer suggested that lavender became a symbol because mixing pink—culturally connected to girls, and blue—culturally connected to boys—creates lavender.  Thus, it is an important rainbow color.

Now lavender roses are often the choice of LGBTQ+ partners on Valentine’s Day for same-sex marriage.

Recently, Taylor Swift wrote a song called “Lavender Haze” which took a 50s term of being in love and modernized it. The song refers to anyone in love. 

6. Tie-Dyed Roses

Although these flowers were first associated with Woodstock and the love and peace movement, it has become an iconic symbol now for the LBGQT+ community, as a result of Gilbert Baker’s rainbow flag. Its message of inclusivity and welcoming resonates with everyone in the community. The flowers, like people, are bright, colorful, varied and beautiful. 

As Lewis Miller points out, “Flowers represent nature and the diversity of the world.”

Courtesy of Oscar Mora