Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"When I came out, everything was Gay and Lesbian.

"We all called ourselves Gay and Lesbian because that was what had been yelled at us as youths. The symbol was the pink triangle.

"The pink triangle was used by hate groups and oppressors to identify us. We took it back. We took gay back.

[...]

"We listened, we learned, we included more people more explicitly. The symbols were the pink triangle and the AIDS ribbon.

"Two badges of death. And you would take them from our cold, dead, hands, motherfucker. Right? Right.

"After I graduated, the rainbow flag became predominant. Made by AIDS activists, by the way. Still coming out of death.

[...]

"Some time after that, other acronyms and terms started being used. QUILTBAG, for instance. Ace/Aro, these are now in use. Lots of terms.

"But nearly all the things we call ourselves have been used as weapons against us.

"Nearly all the symbols we use for our resistance have origins in our deaths.

"Not just oppression.

"Death.

[...]

"Everybody who came out before you has taken the rocks and bottles and made them into shields and wind chimes."

-- Sigrid Ellis (sigridellis), 2017-03-15

[Two comments from me: (1) compare my entry from 2021-06-24 quoting what racheline_m wrote the day before, and (2) I would quietly suggest that "everybody who came out before you" is survivorship bias -- the ones who thrived took the rocks and bottles and made them into shields and wind chimes, but many succumbed to attacks born of hatred.]