Vexed in the Islands

Today is VexiDay, or World Vexillology Day, a day to celebrate flags of all types (vexillology is the study of flags). With the Paris Olympics and Paralympics still floating around in our memory I thought it would be appropriate to look at a couple of national flags designed by lgbt people.

A quick word about national flags. National flags do not necessarily represent an independent nation. The term has also come to be used for any flag adopted by a constituent nation, dependent territory or autonomous region that is recognised and used by them nationally and internationally. Wales, Guam and Hong Kong have national flags, even though none of them are independent.

Long-time readers may remember that I wrote about Prince George of Greece and Denmark (1869-1957) and his involvement with the first modern Olympics in 1896. I also mentioned how he became the High Commissioner and Governor General of Crete in 1898. In fact, he was often just referred to as the Prince of Crete.

During the years of fighting between Cretan Christians and Ottoman Turks over control of the island several flags flew over Crete, all claiming to be its national flag. Crete was part of the Ottoman Empire, so the Turks supported the flying of the Ottoman flag. Conversely, the Cretan Christians who wanted to become part of Greece supported the Greek national flag. There were also several other flags used by both sides.

The Ottoman Empire had reluctantly agreed to let Crete by governed by the Great Powers (UK, France, Russia and Italy) as a sort of peace-keeping force. As such they didn’t support the use of any of the flags. The Great Powers flew their own national flags over the areas where they had particular control, like Berlin after World War II partitioned in 1945 between UK, USA, France and the Soviet Union.

After the Great Powers appointed Prince George as High Commissioner the race was on to design a new national flag to be raised on his arrival to take up his position. The main concern was to choose a design that did not upset any of the ethnic or religious communities.

Prince George designed his own flag (labelled A below). Almost immediately, his design came under criticism, primarily because it contained a common symbol of Greek nationalism – a Greek Orthodox Christian cross. In fact, it had 2 of them. The white cross on a blue background was also used on flags by Cretan Christian groups attacking Muslims and Turks. There seemed to be an obvious bias by Prince George to promote Crete joining Greece.

The Russians proposed flag B above, but this went the other way – the crescent, red and green are Muslim and Ottoman symbols. With just 3 days before Prince George arrived on Crete the Great Powers decided on flag C, a variation of Prince George’s idea. Red and the star were intended to represent the Ottoman Turks and Cretan Muslims. They refused to fly it. However, the design stayed and was used on Cretan banknotes right up to the day Crete eventually fulfilled its desire to become part of Greece in 1913.

The flag of Crete was never displayed at an Olympic Games, but in 1906 the so-called Intercalated Olympic Games (which until 1949 the IOC regarded as official) took place. Although Crete was still officially part of the Ottoman Empire, 8 athletes were listed as competing for Crete, though in the official report they were counted as part of the Greek team.

Even if Prince George didn’t see his flag fly at the Olympics, one lgbt artist did, and it was there again in Paris 2024.

From a vexillo-historical point of view the national flag of the United Kingdom is the one that has appeared at the most Olympics due to its inclusion in so many past and present other flags of its colonies and territories. Though the UK’s flag wasn’t designed by someone in the lgbt community (as far as anyone knows), the original design which excluded the red diagonal cross was chosen by King James of England and Scotland, who certainly was.

The biggest increase in the creation of distinctive national flags came in the 1950s and 1960s as many current nations were attaining their independence from colonial powers (plus one or two nations, like Canada, who decided to change theirs).

The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago gained independence in 1962. Prior to that they were British colonies who used the flag illustrated below left, showing their coat of arms. This is the flag used by Trinidad and Tobago at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games up till then.

In May 1962, only 3 months before independence, Trinidad and Tobago decided to adopt a brand new flag and coat of arms. The Independence Committee appointed 7 people to form a flag and arms sub-committee. These people included museum directors, politicians and one designer.

The designer was Carlisle Chang (1921-2001), a gay artist born in Trinidad of Chinese immigrant parents. Today Chang is regarded as the father of Trinidadian Art. He designed carnival costumes, painted murals, and was an interior designer.

Chang was also no stranger to the world of flags and heraldry. In 1957 he was a member of the committee that designed the flag and coat of arms of the short-lived West Indies Federation (1958-1962). Although the design of the Federation flag is credited to Edna Manley, it is believed that the coat of arms (below left) was primarily Chang’s work.

As far as Trinidad and Tobago is concerned, both the coat of arms (above, next to the West Indies Federation coat of arms) and the familiar diagonally striped flag (above right) are Chang’s work. Official sources claim that several designs were submitted to the Independence Committee, but there is not record of anything but Chang’s design. The sources also claim that it was the sub-committee who designed the flag but, as the interview with Chang below makes clear, he was the only one truly dedicated to the project and the contribution of the other 6 members was negligible.

After I had finished writing this article, news emerged that the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley, had announced his intention of altering Chang’s design of the coat of arms. In a world where colonial symbolism is being replaced with traditional local emblems, Dr. Rowley has suggested that the 3 ships on the shield, representing those which brought Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean, should be replaced by 3 traditional steelpan drums. I like this idea.

The concept of decolonising national emblems is a good way to express national identity and to show a period of successful independence, but does it go far enough to justify de-colonisalism as a reason? I wonder if Dr. Rowley also supports that changing of his nation’s name. Trinidad is the name given to the island by the very colonists he wants to remove from the coat of arms.

Next time you see the flag of Trinidad and Tobago you can put a name to the gay man who designed it, Carlisle Chang, and ponder on the irony that Trinidad and Tobago is still one of the many homophobic nations in the Caribbean.

Birmingham Breaks Records

The Birmingham Commonwealth Games ended a few days ago and they broke all previous records for lgbt inclusion. But first, I’d like to reveal that lgbt participation goes way back to 1934 and the first known lgbt athlete at the Commonwealth Games (then called the British Empire Games) was Edwin Halstead (1907-1962). He competed under the name of Edith Halstead and won the silver medal in the women’s javelin competition. Not much is known about his personal life and I have very little to tell you, except that he transitioned before 1944. I’m digging around for more information and will tell you what I’ve found next month when I write about a special sporting centenary.

I had hoped to publish the updated list of Commonwealth Games athletes today. Unfortunately, some errors in the list were noticed at the last minute and I’ll publish it later this week after I’ve been through it again. Thanks to Jon Holmes of Sports Media LGBT+ and Pride House Birmingham for helping to compile this list and for spotting the errors. Errors like this have been dogging me all year and is affecting my ability to produce accurate information. I hope it is just “old age”! The information below has been double-checked and is correct at the date of publication.

The prelude to the Birmingham 2022 games, as mentioned in my previous article, was the Queen’s baton relay. I mentioned Lauren Price being among the first baton bearers as it left Buckingham Palace in 2021. Here are a handful of the other lgbt baton bearers with date and locations.

Rachael Grinham, Commonwealth squash champion: 17th March 2022, Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia.

Ian Thorpe, Olympic and Commonwealth swimming multi-champion: 17th March 2022, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia.

Dame Kelly Holmes, Olympic and Commonwealth track champion: 7th July 2022, Tonbridge, Kent, England.

Colin Jackson, Olympic hurdler and Commonwealth champion: 8th July 2022, Basildon Sports Village, Essex, England.

Jason Watson, a.k.a. Jsky, BBC Radio Manchester and Gaydio presenter: 18 July 2022, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. (Jsky claims to be the first baton bearer to do so wearing high heels. This is unverified.)

Tom Bosworth, Olympic and Commonwealth race walker: 18th July 2022, Liverpool, Merseyside, England.

Piero Zizzi, Co-founder, Proud Baggies and Pride House Birmingham: 26 July 2022, Birmingham, West Midlands, England.

On several occasions the Queen’s baton relay ventured into the heart of the lgbt community. It was welcomed onto the stage at Cambridge Pride on 10th July, and went into Birmingham’s Gay village on 27th July. The last time anything like this happened was when the baton visited Toronto Pride House during the 2014 relay. 

On the last day of the relay the relay encountered a protest by veteran activist Peter Tatchell. With a small group of supporters he was protesting against the criminalisation of homosexuality in many Commonwealth nations. 

The relay culminated with the entry into the stadium during the opening ceremony on 28th July, carried by Olympic and Commonwealth diving champion Tom Daley. Accompanying him were six lgbt activists, each carrying a Pride Progress flag. This official statement made by the Birmingham 2022 organising committee also highlighted the homophobia around the Commonwealth. 

Birmingham 2022 can be called the Rainbow Games. The official presence of any lgbt flag during the opening ceremony is ground-breaking in itself, but the Commonwealth Games Federation made it very clear in December 2021 that there would be no objection to athletes carrying a rainbow flag onto the medal podium. This is in stark contrast to the Olympics. But, as we have seen at recent Commonwealth Games and Olympics, there’s nothing to stop spectators waving a flag.

The Pink Jack, the gay version of the UK’s national flag designed by David Gwinnutt, was seen several times at the aquatics centre. There was also a less well-know flag there on other days. The image below shows the Scottish version of the Rainbow flag depicting the Scottish lion.

Rainbows didn’t always appear on flags. The captains of the UK home nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) wore rainbow armbands in their matches. Similarly, Australia’s women’s rugby sevens captain, Sharni Williams, who wore rainbow headgear. More rainbows were spotted at other competitions. But the most rainbows in one place occurred during the opening ceremony. Every member of Team England wore badges of the Pride Progress flag. 

However, one important flag was absent. With hype surrounding homophobia in the Commonwealth there was no visible attention made to the exclusion of transgender athletes. In all my recordings of the events and review of other media I could see no transgender flag or statement from athletes about transgender inclusion, which has been a prominent debate this year. Double standards? After all, the Commonwealth Games is primarily about sport. 

Earlier this year US swimming debated the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s competition, sparked by the successes of Lea Thomas. There was a similar debate in British cycling over Emily Bridges which led to her being excluded from elite competition. As long as sport is divided into two gender categories the debates will continue into the foreseeable future. 

Here are some statistics from Birmingham 2022, which will obviously change as new information comes to light. There were 46 confirmed out lgb+ athletes (no transgender athletes), more than three times the number listed at the time of the previous games in 2018, 13 (a further 24 came out or have been identified since then). Only 5 athletes in Birmingham competed in male categories (compared to 6 out of the 37 athletes in 2018). Twelve out of the 72 competing nations had lgb+ athletes, ranging from the most populous Commonwealth nation, India, to one of the least, the Falkland Islands. 

A total of 16 members of Team LGB+ won medals in 8 events – 7 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze. All were won by female athletes. For the purposes of the official medal table they count as 5 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze, because team sports count as one medal even when all team members receive one each. This made Team LGB+ finish 14th on the final medal table (duplicating team medals with their national medals to take into account non-lgbt team members, and transferring individually-won medals from national scores into Team LGB+). Only one athlete, English squash player Sarah-Jane Perry, won more than one medal (1 silver, 1 bronze). All but 2 athletes finished in the top 8 in their event. No male athlete finished higher than 6th place, the first time since the 1970 games in Edinburgh, Scotland, that no men won medals. At the moment, even though more athletes competed in 2020, their overall results are lower than in 2018. 

What does the overall lgbt medal table look like? Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe remains at the top with 10 gold medals and 1 silver. Five of the athletes making their Commonwealth debut in Birmingham (Ashleigh Brazill, Rachael Haynes, Jess Jonassen, Tara Llanes and Megan Schutt) went straight into the top 30 with their gold medal wins. 

The highest climber from the pre-2022 table was boxer Michaela Walsh (Northern Ireland’s flag carrier at the opening ceremony) who moved up from 38th place to 17th with her gold medal adding to her previous 2 silvers. 

The most successful nation was Australia (no surprise there) with 5 athletes winning gold medals in 3 events (cricket, netball and rugby sevens). Their netball win was Australia’s 1,000th Commonwealth gold medal. 

England’s cricket captain, Katherine Brunt, earned her 100th cap at the first match England played in the tournament. 

Canadian 3x3 wheelchair basketball player Tara Llanes became the oldest ever Commonwealth Games medallist by winning gold at the age of 43. The youngest medallist in Birmingham was Australian cricketer Jess Jonassen, aged 29. 

I could be here for days rolling out information and statistics, but I think this is enough for now. If there are any specific statistics you’d like to know please ask in the comments below. 

If there’s one thing to take away from all this, to balance the negative issues surrounding lgbt inclusion in sport and the Commonwealth, is that we should realise we have seen a huge increase in lgbt visibility and participation in both the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics over the past four years. Long may it continue.

Vexed Pride

Rawpixel/Stock/Getty Images Plus

Today’s title doesn’t imply anger or annoyance at Pride (I’m not sure if many people still use the word “vex” in that way). I mean something else entirely. Long-time readers know I’m a vexillologist – a flag studier (deriving from “vexillum”, the name of the square flags the Romans used), and today is World Vexillology Day, a day to celebrate the world of flags. Today is also the start of LGBT History Month USA, so what better way to start the month by proudly waving your lgbt flags.

In the 21st century people have been defined more diverse genders and sexualities. Most express their diversity with their own flag, and there’s a growing number of these all the time. The Unity Pride Flag Project is endeavouring to display all known diversity flags in one huge flag. The project began in the USA after a group of friends thought about an all-inclusive flag containing all the colours of every gender and sexuality flag. Very quickly it became apparent that there were too many colours (breaking one of the “principles” of flag design, see below). Instead it was decided to have every diversity flag joined together in one long flag.

If you want to know more about this project you can visit their website here. If you want to know what each flag represents you can visit their Facebook photo page here.

The principles of flag design were formulated by vexillologists around the world and published by the North American Vexillological Association in 2006. These aren’t legal requirements but are guidelines for good design. Here are their recommended principles:

1) KEEP IT SIMPLE. It should be easy enough for a child to copy from memory, and instantly identifiable when seen high up on a flag pole. The back of the flag should be an exact mirror image of the front.

2) USE MEANINGFUL SYMBOLISM, whether in the colours, layout or symbols.

3) USE FEW COLOURS, preferably 2 or 3 contrasting colours from the standard colour set (red, yellow, green, blue, black, white).

4) NO LETTERING OR SEALS. No words. State seals are designed to be seen close-up on paper, not high up on a flag pole.

5) BE DISTINCTIVE OR RELATED. Don’t copy existing flags. If expressing a connection to an existing community make the design distinctive enough so that a difference can be seen when it is on a flag pole.

I would add two more principles:

6) BE AWARE OF PROPORTIONS. Most designs look best on a rectangle. Don’t be afraid to use square or triangular flags if it suits the design, as long as it can still be flown on a flag pole. No curved edges.

7) DO YOUR RESEARCH. Make sure your flag doesn’t already exist. Check the meaning of emblems and symbols - don’t risk abuse by designing a flag with, say, neo-Nazi symbols (take note, Extinction Rebellion).

There are many good flags that have exceptions to these principles (e.g. Rainbow Pride flag and the South African national flag), as do many flags designed before these principles were formulated.

You may not realise that international law regards flags as belonging unconditionally to the people. There are a few emblems and symbols (including the Red Cross, the Olympic rings, corporate logos, coats of arms) that are protected by law and should be avoided and not used without permission. Many young lgbt flag designers assume they own the copyright on their design. They retain credit as designer and can, if permissible, register copyright in their own country on any new symbols or emblems, but as soon as they make their flag public it becomes public property – anyone can produce their flag.

Something that really does get me “vexed” in the meaning of “annoyed” are the many examples of bad flag designs on the Unity Pride Facebook page. Many are designed by young inexperienced flag designers. Of course, not everyone can be a graphic designer and I have no quarrel with their gender identities, but very few of their flags are “distinctive”. Others are a mash-up of existing flags. It would be difficult to distinguish any of them on an actual flag pole, which makes the design (not the gender identity) pointless. The biggest failure is the long Unity Pride Flag itself. Being composed of hundreds of smaller flags makes it impracticable. If you can’t fly it on a flag pole it’s not a flag, simple as that. It’s a quilt.

Don’t get me wrong. I adore what the people at Unity Pride are doing. Anything that promotes the awareness and cultural importance (and dangers) of flags is a good thing. But, from a vexillologist’s point of view, the end result is brave but disappointing.

Another flag that has me vexed is the Unity Pride infinity symbol. The idea behind it was to show many colours of lgbt flags on the left loop. On that point alone it breaks the 3rd principle, even if it’s not compulsory. It’s the presence of the infinity symbol that is more problematic. The infinity symbol had been used as the emblem of the ethnic Métis people of Canada since 1816. In 2014 the Canadian government gave the infinity symbol protected status. It can only be used by the Métis people, or to represent them, or used in mathematics. By implication it applies to any nation outside Canada where Métis people live. Its use since 2014 by anyone else (including Unity Pride) isn’t illegal, but it IS cultural appropriation. Some places may ban the Unity Pride infinity flag because it can be seen as an abuse of the Métis emblem.

Several other uses of the infinity symbol pre-date 2014 (e.g. autism awareness and some bisexual flags) but the law is not retrospective. There are thousands of other symbols in the history of the planet that can be adopted for a flag, and many more can be created, why use one that’s already in use?

Finally, here’s a community flag designed in 2016 containing the infinity symbol that was used before it became protected. It’s an example of a good flag design. It was designed by Twainbow, an American organisation which supports lgbt people on the autism spectrum, like myself, and made its first appearance at Houston Pride. The infinity symbol was first adopted for autism awareness in 2004 by the Aspies For Freedom group in the USA.

High Pride

In a past article I’ve written about the oldest Pride events on each continent, the most northerly and southerly, and the biggest and smallest. What I haven’t done is look at which Pride event has taken place at the highest altitude. That’s not to be confused with the highest places the Rainbow Pride flag has flown. It may surprise you to learn that a dozen Pride marches have taken place at altitudes that are above the highest point in Australia.

Most Prides that take place in major cities do so at, or close to, sea level. The reason is simple – the original settlements of these cities, most of them current capital cities, were established on the coast or next to major rivers. So you won’t see New York, London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro or San Francisco in the list below.

When deciding what constitutes a Pride event, whether it uses that name or not, is largely subjective. This is my personal definition. A Pride event should be an open public event organised by a designated committee. It should be aimed at (but not restricted to) the lgbt community to celebrate and commemorate sexual and gender diversity and to highlight lgbt rights. It takes place on a specific date in a specific public location. Any profits should go primarily to lgbt projects or charities. Pride events named or publicised to highlight specific groups within the community (e.g. Bisexual Pride, Black Pride, Transgender Pride, Internet Pride) are not included (I’ll try to cover them next year). Protest marches, political rallies and gatherings arranged in response to an event (e.g. equal marriage rallies, Orlando shootings vigils, protests outside government buildings, embassies and commercial businesses) are not included. Pride events I considered for this list had a central lgbt rights element to them, a parade or march, speeches from activists, and community celebrations of diversity, or at least two of these criteria. Finally, events such as Gay Ski Week, Disney Gay Days, gay cruises, etc. are not included because of their more commercial origins, despite fulfilling several of the listed criteria (again, I’ll try to look at these events in more detail next year).

So, where is the highest Pride? The most obvious place to look is in the Himalayan nations, but because most of the mountain towns and settlements are located in homophobic nations there’s little chance of finding any public Pride events there. However, if we look at the second highest mountain range, the Andes, we hit the jackpot.

To give you an idea of how high these cities are the International Society for Mountain Medicine defines “high altitude” as any location between 1,500 and 3,500 meters (about 5,000 and 11,500 feet) above sea level. They call any location between 3,500 and 5,000 meters (11,500 and 18,000 feet) as “very high altitude”. The top 4 cities that host an annual Pride are all within the “very high altitude” levels and are all in Bolivia.

One thing Bolivia is famous for is for having the highest capital city in the world, La Paz, at an elevation of 3,650 metres (11,980 feet) above sea level. But La Paz is actually the lowest of the top 4 High Pride cities.

Below is an illustration showing the Top 20 Pride Cities that I have been able to identify. Follow the city name down, or up, to the first triangle in that column. The triangle represents the general altitude of the city. As it happens the Top 20 all take place over 2,000 metres above sea level (and so is No. 21 – Flagstaff Pride, USA, not on the chart or list below). For exact details see the table underneath.

Below is the list of the top 20 highest Pride cities with altitudes, and the name and date (that I can find online) of the most recent or future Pride held there. The heights are approximate because various cities have varying altitudes from place to place, even my local Pride march in Nottingham ends about 30 metres higher than the start. As more research and more Prides are held in the coming years the list will undoubtedly change.

Even though I said above that I wouldn’t include any Gay Ski Weeks you may be interested to know which of them is the highest, so you can get some idea of how they might fit into the High Pride table. The highest Gay Ski Week identified so far is Breck Pride in Breckenridge, Colorado, USA, at an altitude of 2,926 meters above sea level. This would place it between Cusco, Peru, and Toluca, Mexico, in the above list. This may seem unusual, but snow levels are governed by geography and environment as well as altitude. Aspen, the most famous Gay Ski Week, takes place at an altitude of 2,438 meters, putting it between 8th and 9th place.

I cannot leave the subject of Pride in South America without mentioning Cusco again. Because Cusco is a very popular tourist destination with the iconic Machu Picchu fortress as its star attraction a few miles away visitors are often confused by the local city flag (below). As you can see it is a rainbow flag, and many visitors have assumed it is the Rainbow Pride flag first adopted by the San Francisco gay community in 1979 (based on Gilbert Baker’s original 8-stripe flag of 1978). This is not the case. The Cusco flag predates Baker’s rainbow flag by several years. It had been used unofficially as a symbol of the local Inca culture and was formally adopted in 1978.

Rainbows Over the Antarctic

In June this year a significant Pride first was added to the list I gave in that month. In June the first official Pride took place on one of the continents, the Antarctic.

There’s no permanent population in Antarctica and they are spread in small group across the whole continent on various scientific bases. Apart from the scientists and support teams the only other people who go there are adventurers, polar explorers and tourists. The transient nature of the population may be the main reason there hasn’t been an official Pride there before.

In reporting the first Antarctic Pride the lgbt media (particularly the notoriously inaccurate Gay Star News) has claimed that the Rainbow Pride flag hadn’t been flown on the continent before. Of course, we all know that isn’t true. If you’ve been following my blog for a number of years you’ll remember Cason Crane, the young gay mountaineer who flew the flag from Vinson Massif, the highest point on Antarctica, in 2012.

There have been many other lgbt workers and visitors to Antarctica over the years, and I set out to see if I could determine the identity of the first person to display the Rainbow Pride flag, or any other lgbt and gender flag, on Antarctica, including its associated island groups that not part of other continents.

As the first Pride flag dates from 1978 I had a starting date for my search. It is safe to say that it wasn’t likely to have been used as a flag of the community, rather than a flag of protest and activism in the USA, until early 1980.

Let’s go backwards in time to see how far back we can go. Below is a map of Antarctica showing the places where the Rainbow Pride flag is known to have been flown prior to this year’s Antarctic Pride.

Locations mentioned, with the three known locations where the Rainbow Pride flag has been flown.

2018 June 9th – Antarctic Pride, the first official Pride on the continent with an organising committee and planned programme of events open to the wider community. The celebrations were centred on McMurdo Station, a US research base.

2016 March – Antarctic declared the world’s first lgbt+-friendly continent by the US charity Planting Peace. This was during a trip to Antarctica by their founding president, Aaron Jackson. Aaron (who is straight) travelled around several areas, waving the rainbow and transgender flags at various locations (at the moment not identified). This is probably the first occasion the transgender Flag was flown on the continent. You can see photos of Aaron’s visit here.

2012 December 12th – Cason Crane’s Seven Summit climb. The rainbow flag was flown from the highest point on Antarctica on this date.

Before 2012 we are on less certain ground, with one exception. While it is known that many scientists, polar adventurers and tourists have visited the continent there is no record of them displaying a Rainbow Pride flag. Here are just a few of those lgbt visitors.

2005 – Dr. Stephen Roberts, a member of the British Antarctic Survey, has been involved in mapping and obtaining geological samples since 2005. He has returned to the continent several times – to the George VI ice shelf and Berkner Island. His most recent research, carried out last year, looked at historical volcanic eruptions and their effects on penguin colonies.

1999 – Novelist, science writer and Gay Games cycling bronze medallist, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, has visited Antarctica several times since 1999 and has written about her experiences. In 2003 she published her children’s book “The Antarctic Scoop”.

1995 – In a ground-breaking thesis on gender and art, specifically relating to his own experiences as an intersex artist, Chris Somers explained how he went to Antarctica during 1995 and 1996 as a member of the 1990 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition (“trans”, as in “across”, not transgender). During his visit he flew both the Rainbow Pride flag and a specially designed flag symbolizing his personal karyotype (the chromosomal arrangement within his body cells). This is the first verifiable occasion that the Rainbow Pride flag and another gender flag were flown on Antarctica. His thesis contains photos of both flags flying at Patriot Hills.

1992 – Mariah Crossland made her first trip to McMurdo Station as a computer support worker. She made several other trips there over the next ten years. In 2002 she represented Antarctica as the Gay Games in Sydney, Australia, with a straight colleague.

1985 – In one of the tragic incidents on the continent in recent decades eight men were killed in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1985. They were all members of a tourist group run by Hanns Ebersten Travel, one of the earliest gay tourist organisations. The plane in which they were travelling crashed on Nelson Island in fog. There were plans for to have a barbecue on the island to celebrate the New Year. While the sexuality of the eight men is not known, three of them were from California, the birthplace of the Rainbow Pride flag. Were they gay? And did they have a Rainbow Pride flag which they hoped to unfurl at their barbecue?

It would be sad if the first Rainbow Pride flag arrived on Antarctica under such tragic circumstances. Hanns Ebersten Travel had operated tours there before, so perhaps, hidden in the recesses of someone’s personal history, there may be a more pleasant story behind the first lgbt Rainbow Over the Antarctic. I will be most grateful to anyone who has been on Antarctica with any lgbt flag to let me know when and where.

Flag Day

If ever there was a day to put the flags out, its today, because this is World Vexillology Day. Vexillology is the study of flags, and the word comes from “vexillum”, which is the name of the square flag the Romans used to carry at the front of their legions.

There are hundreds of flags used by the lgbt community. A lot of them have been featured on this blog, and if you want to know more about them please go to the labels list and select “flags”.

There are some lgbt vexillologists (people, like myself, who study flags) involved in the world of general flag studies as well as lgbt flags. I featured one, Mark Ritzenhein, on the blog a few months ago. There have also been some lgbt vexillologists who have designed flags for the wider community or for specific organisations. One of the earliest of these flags is that of the Society of the Cincinnati (below).

This Society was formed in 1783 in the newly independent USA and membership was open to descendants of soldiers who fought against the British. Two of its founders were George Washington and Baron Friedrich von Steuben (1730-1794). The baron, who went to America after years of being sacked from several German armies because of his gay affairs, was instrumental in turning the Continental Army of the revolutionary colonists into a formidable opponent to the British Redcoats. I’ll be returning to Baron von Steuben later in the year. Incidentally, the city of Cincinnati takes its name from this society.

The baron designed the Society of the Cincinnati flag. The design varied over the years but the stripes have remained constant. The stripes are a tribute to the 12 original colonies, as also represented on the Stars and Stripes. The light blue colour of the stripes is said to represent America. It is likely that this is in tribute to blue and buff uniforms worn by the revolutionaries, the colours I wrote about earlier in the year.

In the 20th century another lgbt flag designer of note was Paul Mills (1924-2004). He was Director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, from 1970 to 1982. He had a lively enthusiasm for modern art, and under his leadership the museum became a vibrant gallery. There’s too many of his projects to mention here, so let’s just look at three which were specifically about flags.

In 1976, the year of the American Bicentennial, Paul devised the New Glory project. In what was arguably the first national flag designing contest in the USA, Paul asked flag and graphic designers to submit new designs for flags of a state, city or organisation of their choice. The 24 winning designs were turned into half of a touring exhibition called “New Glory”. The exhibition catalogue of these flags can be seen here. The other half of the exhibition consisted of replicas of historical US flags.

When the exhibition closed the flags were given to Paul Mills for his next project, the Santa Barbara Flag Project. This is one of several legacies he left that is still very much alive today.

Paul chose the breakwater at Santa Barbara’s harbour to relocate the flags permanently. The idea was to introduce specially designed flags of local charitable non-profit organisations and community groups. The idea took off spectacularly, and Paul Mills supervised the regular rotation of flags personally until his death in 2004.

Across the harbour at Stearns Wharf is another line of flags that are part of the Santa Barbara Flag Project. They were raised in memory of one of its members, Cedric Boeseke (1907-1994), and are the replica historical flags used in the New Glory Project.

Following Paul Mills’ death in 2004 the breakwater flags were not replaced and the poles remained bare until 2007 when the project was revived by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. At the rededication ceremony Paul’s three children were guests of honour, and a special flag commemorating Paul was raised. One of Paul’s children is film-maker Mike Mills.

Following the death of his wife Jan in 1999 Paul came out as gay to Mike during Thanksgiving. After Paul’s death Mike began to write a film based heavily on their relationship as a son and gay father called “Beginners”. Described as a romantic comedy drama it was released in 2010 and starred Ewan McGregor as the character based on Mike himself, and Christopher Plummer as the character based on Paul. Christopher Plummer won an Oscar for his role.

Even though Paul Mills left us in 2004 his biggest flag project out of the three which still survives was an attempt to introduce flags to the city streets of Santa Barbara called the State Street Flag Project. State Street is the main thoroughfare heading from the harbour.

As with the breakwater flags the State Street project displays local charity flags in rotation. It has become a welcome symbol of pride for all those who take part.

There’ll never be enough room to go into Paul’s many other flag projects, including one which involved the present King of Spain, so I’ll finish with flags which Paul designed (below).

Because the flags in the State Street project are flown vertically rather than horizontally the little castle on the city flag (left) is on its side when flown vertically. Paul adapted the design to make it more vexillologically correct (centre). This flag is still flown every year during fiesta week. The two flags on the right were designed by Paul for the city of Monterey. They are based on two historical coats of arms associated with the city. The top version is the official municipal flag and the plainer version underneath is the citizens’ flag (a bit like national flags, where many countries have a state flag used by the government and a simpler civil flag used by the public).

However you feel about flags you have to admire Paul Mills’ dedication to vexillology. Other than Gilbert Baker with his Rainbow Pride flag I cannot think of another lgbt person who has made such a huge legacy and impact on a community.