Pansies

The Pansy holds some symbolic significance to us Queers, as the flower's name has been used to mock our frailties and peculiarities; and yet this bloom has been taken up by some as a badge of honor. Perhaps there are those who see and hear in it a play on the term "pansexual." My mother always had pansies in the garden as I was growing up in Connecticut. A Pansy, of course, is a type of Violet, a large and boldly patterned Viola. It is one of the flowers I most look forward to in the Spring.