One potential threat to the particularly aggressive members of the homophobic community was an organization who referred to themselves as The Lavender Panthers. “Lavender menace” plays on the widely used Cold War term “red menace,” describing the perceived communist threat while homophobes utilized the label to refer to the gay liberation “threat” of social harmony, queers took the term and flipped it to mock the irrational fears of homophobes.¹ However, the lesbian members from NOW embraced the sly moniker and wore shirts emblazoned with the term “lavender menace,” while delivering manifesto-style speeches about homosexual turmoil (even within the feminist community) on stage at the Second Congress to Unite Women in 1970.¹ For example, within lesbian circles in America during the 1930s, lavender became a popular colloquial term to refer to other lesbians.¹ĭuring the early 1970s, the American National Organization for Women (NOW) referred to their active lesbian members as “lavender menaces”-in lieu of the widely controversial term “lesbian”-to prevent the public mind from undermining the feminist organization. The same historical ambiguity and blue/pink color fusion applies to the lighter shade, though lavender holds more significance in its usage with organization names and LGBT community jargon. In the purple family, LAVENDER also has close ties to LGBT and gay liberation. Combining the two gender assigned colors both blurs the lines between masculine and feminine and challenges societal gender norms. PURPLE’s association with pride has no definitive origin or meaning, but the most common belief is that purple represents the mixing of gender normative colors pink and blue, pink representing cis-gender femininity and blue representing cis-gender masculinity. Both pink and purple have long histories with the LGBT community, though some histories are clearer and better documented than others.Īs pride month and pride festivities wind down, let’s take a moment to revisit the symbolism, history, and reasons why we celebrate pride in the first place, starting with the colors purple and pink. Believe it or not, the color choice for the pride weekend kickoff party carries more significance than what appears on the surface. On Friday, June 21st, 2019, Center 615 hosted the annual Pink + Purple Party in our Courtyard and Rec Hall event venues. We believe in the chamber’s ethos of fostering equity and diversity in the workplace, opening opportunities for all. History and symbolism lie beneath the prideful colors of the 2019 Pink + Purple Party, hosted at Center 615.īeing a vibrant, creative community of businesses, we are proud members of the Nashville LGBT Chamber.