Gay is the new Black

So I need a little help. Below are three versions of a poster slogan for gay rights. My aim is to compare gay rights to civil rights movements in a way to motivate my generation to realize that just because they may not be effected directly--we're talking about equality here.

Version 1

The original sketch as it was done before we scanned it into Illustrator and made it digital. I like this one because the flourish on the "y" has a lot of 'breathing' room and therefore is accented.
If I kept this one I would align the lower case "w" in new with the stroke of the "k" in black so that they were part of the same imaginary line. I also moved the squirl on the "G" up above the "BLACK" so it didn't look like I was dotting part of the "L" as an "i".

Version 2

This one highlights the "G" in gay.I don't really like the "L" or the "CK"'s placement over the flourishes...what do you think? I want it to feel like gay is rising up out of black, however here it looks like black is on top of Gay. I do like that "gay" is more balanced on the work "BLACK" though.

Version 3

This is the same as version 2 except it has cutouts where the two words "gay" and "BLACK" overlap. I really like this one but am worried about legibility. To me it feels like "gay" is blurring out Black, as if it is a thing of the past, and Gay is taking it's black in terms of importance. Is it illegible? or is it worth doing to draw viewers in? Remember this will be on a 8.5x11 poster. I'll post layouts later...

Comments would be appreciated. Let me know what you think.