A rainbow party is a supposed group sex event featured in an urban legend spread since the early 2000s. A variant of other sex party urban myths, the stories claim that at these events, allegedly increasingly popular among adolescents, people wearing various shades of lipstick take turns fellating others in sequence, leaving multiple colors (resembling a rainbow) on their penises. The idea was publicized on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2003, and became the subject of a 2005 juvenile novel called Rainbow Party. Sex researchers and adolescent health care professionals have found no evidence for the existence of rainbow parties, and consequently attribute the spread of the stories to a moral panic.

Origin

The story was originally related by American Christian pediatrician Meg Meeker in her 2002 book Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids. The book related allegations of adolescents suffering cancer, sterility, acute infections, and unwanted pregnancies as a consequence of starting sexual activity too early in life. Meeker relates the following story alleged to be from a 14-year-old patient from Michigan: "[Allyson] had heard some kids were going to have a 'rainbow party,' but had no idea what that meant. Still, she thought it might be fun, and arranged to attend with a friend. After she arrived, several girls (all in the eighth grade) were given different shades of lipstick and told to perform oral sex on different boys to give them 'rainbows.' Once she realized what was happening, Allyson was too stunned and frightened to do anything. When a girl gave her some lipstick, she refused at first but, with repeated pressure, finally gave in. 'It was one of the grossest things I've ever done.'"

Evidence of falsity

Deborah Tolman, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University, wrote: "This 'phenomenon' has all the classic hallmarks of a moral panic. One day we have never heard of rainbow parties and then suddenly they are everywhere, feeding on adults' fears that morally-bankrupt sexuality among teens is rampant, despite any actual evidence, as well as evidence to the contrary." Tolman found that several features of the story ring false. She was skeptical that many adolescents would be motivated to engage in such activity in the face of the severe social stigma still attached to sexual activity, and rejected the idea that they would examine each other's lipstick marks. Reason writer Nick Gillespie has claimed "Rainbow parties are as real as unicorns."

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