Rainbows, Unicorns, and Triangles

January 1, 2024
An illustrated primer of LGBTQ+ symbols tied to community, history, pride, and resistance. Organized in loose chronological order, the book explores green carnations, violets, Polari (slang adopted in the U.K. in the 1920s and the only nonvisual symbol covered here), lavender rhinos, purple hands, the lambda, the labrys, pink and black triangles, and more. A few brief lines introduce the text, explaining why these symbols hold significance. Some served as a tool to help queer people secretly signify their identities; others were demonstrations of pride and resistance in the face of persecution. An entry on rainbows, which touches on how the pride flag has changed over time, creates a bridge to the last entries, which look at symbols from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including two devoted to asexuality. Overall, however, the text is spare, with little tying one entry to the next. No suggestions for further reading on the topics introduced are provided. As the title suggests, unicorns are covered, but their inclusion interrupts the chronology (no historical context is given in this entry, unlike in the others), and the explanation for why unicorns are a queer symbol is vague and sweeping. The bland prose relies on the lively illustrations to sustain interest. People depicted throughout are racially diverse. A thin, disconnected overview. (discussion questions) (Illustrated nonfiction. 7-12)

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