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HelpRe: Rainbows
in reply to a message by Starla Roxanne
The rainbow flag symbol for gay pride goes back to 1978 when man named Gilbert Baker designed such a flag for the gay & lesbian community in San Francisco.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/ftp/bulgarians/rainbow-flag.html
But rainbow flags have a much longer history as a general symbol for inclusiveness and diversity in many cultures around the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag
I can understand why people might not want to use Rainbow as a child's name because it sounds a bit "hippy" or overly "cute". But I think avoiding it because of its association with the rainbow flag is giving in to homophobia. People who would make ignorant remarks about gays to someone who names a daughter Rainbow are jerks and should be ignored as such, IMHO.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/ftp/bulgarians/rainbow-flag.html
But rainbow flags have a much longer history as a general symbol for inclusiveness and diversity in many cultures around the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag
I can understand why people might not want to use Rainbow as a child's name because it sounds a bit "hippy" or overly "cute". But I think avoiding it because of its association with the rainbow flag is giving in to homophobia. People who would make ignorant remarks about gays to someone who names a daughter Rainbow are jerks and should be ignored as such, IMHO.
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on principle, I agree
That fear of what other people may think about your values or beliefs should not stop you from calling a kid Rainbow if you want to. However, it's easy to say that when you do't actually have a little Rainbow who's come home crying because of some hateful remark that a stupid kid at school and/or said kid's stupid parents have made about the name. My feeling is, making judgments and assumptions about me is one thing, dragging my kid into it is quite another. The former is just irritating, but the latter spells big trouble.
That fear of what other people may think about your values or beliefs should not stop you from calling a kid Rainbow if you want to. However, it's easy to say that when you do't actually have a little Rainbow who's come home crying because of some hateful remark that a stupid kid at school and/or said kid's stupid parents have made about the name. My feeling is, making judgments and assumptions about me is one thing, dragging my kid into it is quite another. The former is just irritating, but the latter spells big trouble.
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