This fabric looks as though it's been hit many times by a paintball gun with small bullets that splatter and matter very much. Tattoos underneath in spun silk. Tattoos that are memories of racial slurs and vitriolic words said out loud. For me, this little flower is a reminder of the pain and suffering intentionally inflicted on the LGBT & Q , especially. Words that are hateful and sting. Words said out of ignorance by the ignorant, especially extreme right wingers who have never read the U.S. constitution or if they have, they consider it a dead document. This beau boutonniere is a beautiful reminder that one has been a soldier in the war against our civil rights. This little flower reminds me of the red poppies made of cloth which were once sold by disabled veterans. A flower that reminds me personally of the many times I've been called names or been assaulted because of my religion, because I'm an ally to the LGBT&Q community, because I am permanently disabled, etc. This reminds me of the splatter marks caused by tomatoes in that famous picture by Norman Rockwell which shows a little African American girl going to school after the landmark decision: Brown v. The Board of Education.
I concur with the words left by Beau-Ties, Ltd.,. This is a silk flower that contains the beautiful colors necessary to healing and good health: sunshine, clean air, good earth, clean water. The necessities that are required for good health.
It's a flower of peace without: divisive and disparaging lies, vitriolic words and hate-filled speeches. . It's a reminder for all the peacemakers who died of AIDS and because of that, these men and women and young people could not and did not transfer their wisdom and knowledge by mentoring or apprenticing the next generation. It's also a flower of honesty: an homage and reminder of all the men and women and children wounded and lost to war. Each small splatter, piercing and tearing the flesh, of the poor and the drafted. People without money to get student deferrals or doctors to excuse them for bone spurs like Donald Trump.
I am not LGBT&Q, but I was very much raised to be an ally for people who are. Gay bashing was not allowed in my grandmother's house. Never. Ever. I bought a rainbow flag on Pride Day in New York. After I hung it up, I found it torn and shredded on the ground. A hate crime.
I've been to Stonewall, but there is a long long way to go until we all have more fundamental rights for control over our own bodies, privacy, etc. . Keep your pumps and stilettos on girls! We need a woman in the Whitehouse now.
I was born in a small Yankee town where people were mostly kind. My great grandfathers and grandfathers who raised me, wore suspenders and bow-ties to the legislature in Hartford. They did not wear pocket squares ,so those are new to me. And what a selection BTLtd. has!
Fortunately, my grandmother, whose name was "Mary", never went to church or temple but was every bit the bodhisattva of compassion and wisdom. We always had a very "Mary Christmas'.' In the sixties, my grandmother would say with a smile and with pride, "I know my son is queer but I love him anyway!" It wasn't what my grandmother said that mattered, it was how she said it. And it wasn't how she said it, it was how she looked when she said it.
This "PROUDLY" tie and boutonnière is for the brave soldiers fighting the good fight for the LGBT&Q community and the other battles happening over this small planet.. It's also for anyone who has had to fight for their own dignity and civil rights, as well as championing the dignity and civil rights of others who are less fortunate.
I expect most men and women who wear this boutonniere will bring their own story line to it. I have told mine and now I want the Wholly Trinity:
-a bowtie
-a boutonnières
-and a pocket scarf
Thank-you!
