A lavender rhino having a calm, soothing moment with his developing calves. When you’ve got a reputation for aggression because of who you are, it’s hard to convince others of your true, gentle self without fear of reprisal. But the people who take the time to know really know and understand you, and the little ones who might one day never have to experience your struggle, make your day.

This was based on the lavender rhino ad controversy in Boston in 1974, when Gay Media Action wanted to use the rhino as a visual metaphor for the LGBTQ community (or the gay community as we were called at the time) because both were, and sadly still are to a lesser extent, misunderstood. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and their advertising agency Metro Transit Advertising both approved the design but increased the cost of the ads from $2 to $7 ($5.93 to $41.50 today), MTA claiming their lawyers were “unable to determine eligibility of the public service rate.” Three guesses as to my opinion on that. GMA did not have the money for the increase, so publicly challenged the price hike, culminating in a papier-mâché lavender rhino being one of the floats in that year’s Boston pride parade and enough donation money to run the rhino ad on the city’s green line in December. All this turned the rhino into a symbol of protest and resistance. You’d think I’d go the punk-rock route of having him in a brawl or engage in civil disobedience because of my own rabble-rousing tendencies, but I didn’t want to go against the original intended message, so have a big softie.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/06/0.....istance-boston