Did you know violet flowers used to be a lesbian symbol?
Often featured in Greek poet Sappho’s writings, violets also made a comeback in the 1927 Broadway play, “The Captive,“ about two lesbians, where one woman sends a bouquet of violets to her lover. There was so much public uproar about the play that protestors and police shut down the final performance in France. But the violet became known as the "lesbian flower,” and supporters of the play would wear them in their lapels, or as a subtle symbol to other women that they were gay.
What little LGBTQ+ “symbols” do you wear today - rainbow shoelaces, lesbian flag-colored phone background? Also…can we make violets A Thing again?
For a long time Hana Klein thought she was the only lesbian in Israel, and maybe in the whole world. She was born in 1951, grew up in Tel Aviv and at 11 realized that her feelings were a bit different from those of her girlfriends. But she didn’t know why. Klein says that in the Israel of the 1950s and ‘60s, “there were no words for it.”
The first hint that she wasn’t alone was at a kiosk…
![A rectangular page with two images. At the very top are the words "We took different roads...", beneath which are a cluster of pride pins bearing different pride flags. Left to right, top to bottom, those flags are: butch, polyamorous, futch, asexual, trans, sapphic, genderfluid, aromantic, transmasc, nonbinary, transfemme, bi lesbian (new), bi lesbian (original), femme, intersex, achillean. Next is an image of a group of 5 non-white people of varying body types and skin tones who each wear some of the pins from the above cluster on their jackets (their detailed descriptions are given in the next paragraph). Behind the group is the orange-white-pink lesbian flag. Beneath them, at the bottom of the screen are the words "...but found the same home". [end of general description] [clothing description of each person]: From left to right, top to bottom: Person 1 presents wearing a crimson red, sporty-looking jacket. They have light beige skin, bright brown eyes, and short, straight brown hair parted at the middle with reddish dyed bangs hanging to each side. They are waving and wearing the butch, trans, and transfemme pins. Person 2 has smoky grey brown hair that is long at the front as a pair of braids by their ears, but is shaved into an undercut around the rest of their head. Their bangs are wavy, and parts of their hair is dyed a teal green. They have a medium copper like tone with bright orange-brown eyes, are holding up a peace hand gesture, and wearing a salmon crop jacket on which is pinned the genderfluid, achillean, sapphic, and bi lesbian (new design) pins. Person 3 has a rounded chin and fatter neck, and sports facial hair under their nose and jaw. They have a deeply tanned complexion, dark brown eyes, and short choppy blue hair that hangs off to one side and is shaved on the other. Their jacket is orange and wears the intersex, trans, and transmasc pins. Person 4 has voluminous, wavy curly auburn hair and aurburn eyes with a medium beige complexion, darker facial freckles, and square glasses. They have a light peach blazer jacket with the futch, nonbinary, and aromantic pins. Person 5 has a deep brown complexion, medium bown eyes and long hair that has been styled into locks where each lock has been dyed varying saturations of lavender so that some are more slate toned while others are more purple. They wear a soft pink hoodie jacket with the ace, femme, polyam, and original bi lesbian flag pins.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e9f4cc2487570096516da348b6a964cc/0d1a4db2aacb9fd6-2c/s640x960/a8afdb4bad0a49991399e5a54d4ccfa6d84baa53.png)
