Yellow was used for the same purpose in Australia. Novelist Robert Hitchens described the phenomenon in 1894’s The Green Carnation, and the book in part spurred Wilde’s trial for sodomy. Oscar Wilde was famous for wearing a trademark green carnation on his lapel, and the flower is thought to have been used by him and other Londoners and Parisians of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries to quietly express their orientation. Why is gay pride represented by rainbows?Ĭloseted gay people historically used bright colors to signal their homosexuality to each other. Streets around the world will be decked in rainbows this week as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community celebrates LGBT Pride Month.