Putting Out the Mexican Bisexual Flag

Today I’m going to take a look at one specific bisexual pride flag, and one that is quite different from the flag designed in 1998 by Michael Page. It is this one –

I first came across this flag on the Flags of the World website a couple of years ago and, as far as I have discovered, is the only bisexual flag designed for a specific country. That country is Mexico.

In many ways this design falls into the category of national flags that have been adapted for and by the lgbt community. Here is the Mexican national flag alongside the rainbow version seen on a few other websites.

The most obvious similarity between all 3 of these flags above is the tricolour format. Mexico adopted this particular format for their national flag in 1821, basing it on the recently created French tricolour in direct rebellion against their former Spanish government.

In designing a flag for Mexican bisexuals the outer stripes were changed to reflect gender/sexuality – the traditional blue for men and a deep pink for women. The colours, with the purple of the central emblem, are taken from the Bisexual Pride flag of 1998.

This Mexican Bisexual flag is one of several designed by Francisco Javier Lagunes Gaitán and Miguel Ángel Corona. Both were active members of the lgbt community in Mexico City. Francisco is particular was (and still is) a leading voice in lgbt, AIDS and human rights organisations. He was press officer for Mexico City Pride for 4 years from 2003, and in 2007 he was President of the Organising Committee. Francisco and Miguel designed their flags in 2001 and they became “official” symbols of the Mexican lgbt community at Mexico City Pride on 29^th June 2002.

In recent years the special Mexican Bisexual flag hasn’t been seen at Mexico City Pride as most people have preferred the Rainbow Pride flag. This is rather a shame, as I’m all in favour of diversity and expressing separate identity.