Anti-Gay Activists "Reclaim" Rainbow Flag

The patriots want to “reclaim” the rainbow flag as “a symbol of God’s covenant with man.” You do that.

At a recent Prop 8 hearing, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, an anti-gay-marriage advocate, sported a rainbow flag as an act of reclamation. Says she,

Proposition 8 was passed by a great grassroots coalition that included people from all across the religious traditions, and also people of every race and color…We are the real rainbow coalition. The gay lobby does not own the rainbow.

Well, no, Skittles does, but in fact the God-man rainbow connection is not a newly-discovered bit of theology; it dates back to Noah (and surely we’ve all seen 70s church-basement tapestries that illustrate the motif.) Says Morse, “Families put rainbows in their children’s nurseries. Little Christian preschools will have rainbows…Noah’s Ark and all the animals…. Those are great Christian symbols, great Jewish symbols.”

Never mind that the rainbow has also long been an emblem of social change, the symbol of the cooperative movement and, since 1978, gay pride. And hey, who are we to argue? If the National Organization for Marriage wants everyone to think they’re supportive of diversity and the LGBT community, they most certainly should go ahead and let that freak flag fly!

Religious Right Mad At Gays For Using Rainbow Symbol [AlterNet]
Prop 8 Backers Want Their Rainbow Flags Back [OC]