Rainbows - bung(le) it in the bin.

Yeah, lame title.

Anyway - with a fresh new background (I fear that changing it will be a regular occurance) comes a new idea for a blog.



So, the rainbow. It's a rare but pretty natural occurance. Every time I see one I'm firstly almost always in a vehicle - but ignoring that, I always crane my neck and make the effort just to see them more.

Odd glimpse of good-naturedness aside.

Everyone's familiar now with the connotations a rainbow (that is to say, the colours in a flag, or an emblem or logo) carries. There's a sense of unity in that the colours blend together and that's all very swish and dandy.

So, in that sense it's understandable that the rainbow flag has been seized by the LGBT community. But is it really?

Call it a shallow observation but surely the blending of colours into one attractive, multicoloured collective has more of a resonance with racial campaigners than the sexuality. Speaking of this, why is it only the LGBT community and not a collective of sexual groups that feels the need to come together under a unique flag. Ignoring the iffy Paul McCartney/Stevie Wonder "Ebony and Ivory" song, there has been, to my knowledge, no real motion for all races to come together under a flag - I'm being careful here because I'm trying not to confuse racial harmony with a desire for said racial harmony to be represented in such a simple way.

Now there's going to be a reluctancy to make any changes (however small and trivial as this blog is suggesting) because it'd be at odds with the current sense of barrier-crossing and progress that LGBT, as other civil right campaigners, have been enjoying.

However, I have a feeling that the rainbow flag is dragged out for gay pride parades in an almost flamboyant and predictably so way. Homosexuals, bisexuals, transexuals and transgenders have long existed before the rainbow was adorned and, whilst attitudes were ignorant and bleak - there wasn't the stereotype of the party-loving disco-crazy gay who's up for any old Mardi Gras shit because there'll be a chance to meet someone or just have a good time.

But for me it's always been almost a handicap for the community. Of course, a tiny one, but one nonetheless. To the extent now where, and as a non-straight man I'm going to be obviously more aware of these intentions, I see a rainbow-coloured anything and immediately draw the connotations. I sometimes look over my shoulder expecting to see a parade led by Brazilian exotic dancers. I sometimes lie about my experiences with the rainbow.

Like the majority of my blogs, I'm not entirely sure what I'm hoping to achieve here. Maybe I just don't like Skittles.