No one can say for sure how it started, but dollar bills with the words "gay money" or a pink triangle stamped on them are surfacing around the country, including in Baltimore.

The stamping is being done by gay men and women who want to prove a point. And the practice appears to be growing like the national deficit.

"The purpose is to show the amount of money that gay consumers spend," says Richard, who declined to give his last name.

Richard doesn't want his full identity known -- not because he is gay, but because it is illegal to deface money.

"What I do is, I get my paycheck and when I cash it I take about $20 in one dollar bills and stamp those," says the 27-year-old Baltimorean. Richard stamps both the pink triangle and the words "gay money" on his dollar bills and knows others who do the same.

To read the complete articles, see:
'Gay money': The currency of change? (http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-06-22/features/1993173190_1_gay-money-gay-and-lesbian-words-gay)

The campaign (i believe i read somewhere) started in San Francisco in the early/mid 1970's. It was also the same time that a new printing technology was released to the market: the self-inking rubber stamp. without this humble new printing technology advancement, gay folks might still all be living in closets in this society.

i'm always fascinated by the ways that the human mind will adapt new technology to surprising tasks. It's the source of most of the innovation in america since WW2 - adaptation and appropriation. We take an idea that emerged as a solution somewhere else in our culture and then simply take it and adapt it to a new task. That is the basic precept of post modernism. It's not about inventing the 'new', but taking the existing and adapting it inventively. From this viewpoint, the queer money campaign is probably the first truly great social postmodernist political event.

Before too long, starting on the west coast and then eventually literally flooding the nation, bills rubber stamped 'QUEER $$$' appeared everywhere. By the late 70's, you literally couldn't find a handfull of money in your pocket that didn't have this on at least one bill. It was omnipresent and it was kinda impressive.

To read the complete article, see:
QUEER MONEY $$$ AND A BRILLIANTLY NORMATIVE IDEA (http://madamepickwickartblog.com/2011/04/queer-money-and-a-brilliantly-normative-idea/)

To read the complete article, see:
Ben & Jerry's co-founder tempts Secret Service by stamping messages on money (www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article70414582.html)