Queer Easter 2001
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Symbols | Bi Pride
Gay and Lesbian symbols
The History of the Bi Pride Flag
by Michael Page.
The first Bi Pride Flag was unveiled on Dec 5, 1998. The intent and
purpose of the flag is to maximize bisexual pride and visibility.
As a result of volunteer work I was doing for BiNet USA, it occurred to
me that if bi people were going to be visible at pride events and
political rallies, we needed a Bi Pride Flag. At that time, there were,
in my opinion, no suitable bisexual icons that were colorful or
prominent enough to gain instant and long lasting recognition as a flag.
At the time, there were bi angles - an inverted double triangle, the bi
symbol - a 3 looped symbol created by Amazon Woman and various shaped
symbols created to represent local groups of bi people.
There is no question that bi people have helped foster the gay and
lesbian movement we have witnessed since the Stonewall riots of 1969.
One problem for bisexuals remains their invisibility. This was also a
problem for gays and lesbians prior to 1969 as very few were willing to
"come out".
In 1978, Gilbert Baker of San Francisco, who I personally met in Italy
at World Pride 2000, created the Rainbow Flag. Each color held it's own
meaning and was intended to represent diversity of the gay and lesbian
community. The effective mass visibility of this icon is indisputable.
Based on my own personal experience, the vast majority of bi people I
have spoken with, feel no connection to the rainbow flag, the pink
triangle, the black triangle, the Lambda symbol or the double-edged
hatchet. These symbols are viewed as gay and lesbian icons, which was
their initial intent. Search the history of the rainbow flag on the
Internet and you will see what I mean.
It is my belief that bi people need their own flags and symbols to rally
around. I believe we (GLBT - Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered)
are at times extremely united, but in our communities usually separate.
In designing the Bi Pride Flag, I selected the colors and overlap
pattern of the bi angles symbol. I selected, which to me, is the most
attractive combination of pink, purple and blue. In flag-maker parlance
this is magenta, lavender and royal. I decided to make the top of the
flag pink and would give it 40% of the horizontal dimension. Purple,
which is the resultant color when you overlap pink and blue, would be
the middle stripe and would be 20% of the dimension. The lower 40% would
be blue.
The pink color represents same sex attraction (gay and lesbian), the
blue represents attraction to the opposite sex (straight) and the
resultant overlap color purple represents sexual attraction to both
(bi). The key to understanding the symbolism of the Bi Pride Flag is to
know that the purple pixels of color blend unnoticeably into both the
pink and blue just as in the "real world" where bi people
blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities.
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