Religious right activist claims that gays stole the rainbow

According to a member of the religious right, us lgbts stole the rainbow and she wants to take it back.

From the American Family Association's One News Now:

An activist fighting for traditional marriage in California is urging Christians to reclaim the rainbow from homosexual-rights activists who have hailed the symbol as their icon of "gay" pride.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the San Diego-based Ruth Institute rightly argues that the rainbow is a sign of God's covenant with man, and she says proponents of Proposition 8 -- California's measure that passed in 2008 to define marriage as between a man and a woman -- are the original "rainbow coalition."

"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," Morse recognizes. "We are the real rainbow coalition. The gay lobby does not own the rainbow."

 Let's look at the history of the rainbow in the lgbt community. According to Wikipedia:

The rainbow flag was popularized in 1978 by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker, during the Gay Freedom Day Parade (though the association between rainbows and the LGBT community existed before 1978).

The multi-colored flag represents diversity, and hence acceptance of those different from us.

The original flag had pink and turquoise in it, but the colors were taken out because of dye unavailability. As it stands, there are six colors on the Pride Flag, each standing for a specific symbol chosen by Baker:

red: life
orange: healing
yellow: sunlight
green: nature
blue: serenity
violet: spirit

It may seem like a silly matter but don't let the triviality of the situation blind you to what's going on here. Morse's claim that we somehow stole something from Christians is in line with her later comments:

"We can't simply let that go by. Families put rainbows in their children's nurseries. Little Christian preschools will have rainbows...

Here is my question - don't lgbts have families? Don't we have children? Don't our children go to preschools and nurseries? Don't we come from every race, creed, and religious tradition?

I think Morse isn't necessarily upset that we have taken the rainbow symbol. I think it has more to do with the fact that the lgbt community will not accept the role that she has designated for us.

To Morse (and no doubt others who agree with her), we don't have a right to certain things, be they symbols of unity and love or families in general, because we don't deserve them. To Morse, lgbts are the eternal outsiders, the freaks, the people who will never fit in no matter how we try.

Perhaps Morse would be happier if we walked about angry and depressed, constantly asking folks like her for their "tolerance" or "pity."

Sorry, but the days of the self-hating lgbt who roams the outskirts of proper society in a depressed haze is on its way out of the door and definitely not fast enough.

So while Morse is correct in saying that the lgbt community doesn't own the rainbow, none of us ever said we did.  But she doesn't own the rainbow either. Nor does anyone else on her side of the spectrum.

Therefore, I would suggest that Morse learns to share. And not just the rainbow either because the concept of family isn't something that belongs solely to her either.