Interesting factoid! I'm pretty sure the roses are a reference to Barazoku, Japan's oldest and longest running gay magazine, starting in 1971 and running for 33 years. It was the first gay magazine to be sold in mainstream bookstores, it provided a voice to the Japanese gay community where there was none before, and it featured an interview with Japan's first confirmed AIDS sufferer when the Japanese media wouldn't even acknowledge the disease. All the while it suffered constant legal harassment and even the multiple arrests of its founder, a guy who was so dedicated to fighting discrimination against gays when he himself wasn't even homosexual.