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.

Olympic Countdown

Only two sports had lgbt athletes competing at the 1998 Winter Olympic in Nagano, Japan – speed skating and ice hockey.

Marieke Wijsman first skated competitively in 1988 at the age of 13. In 1996 she became Dutch champion in the 1000 metres. Marieke was the first female skater to compete internationally in clap skates. These are skates that aren’t fixed rigidly along the sole of the boot but hinged at one end so that the blade has longer contact with the ice. Soon the rest of the world followed suit and because of the increased efficiency on the ice dozens of world records were smashed by clap-skate wearers in Nagano.

American speed skater Chris Witty made her second Olympic appearance in Nagano. She improved on her 23^rd position in 1000m at the 1994 games by winning silver. She also won a bronze in the 1500m. (As I said in a previous post I have only seen her name on one internet list of lgbt athletes).

The Nagano Olympics saw the introduction of women’s ice hockey, and it is in this sport that the other 3 lgbt athletes competed.

Nancy Drolet had been a member of the Canadian women’s ice hockey team since 1992. That year the team won the World Championships and Nancy was named Athlete of the Year by the Canadian Sports Council. The team won the world championships twice more before the Nagano Olympics and three more times afterwards. At Nagano Nancy and the Canadian team won the silver medal.

In the round robin stage of the tournament the Canadians beat the Swedish team. Playing for Sweden was Erika Holst and Ylva Lindberg. Even though they didn’t win a medal they finished in 5^th position with Olympic diplomas.

For only the second time since 1972 there were no identified lgbt figure skaters competing in the winter Olympics. That doesn’t mean they had no influence on the competition.

Brian Wright (1959-2003) was one of the top choreographers in figure skating who influenced many others. It was watching the 1968 Winter Olympics held in Grenoble that inspired Brian to take up skating. Even though he came 2^nd in the US national novice championships and was tipped for a place on a future Olympic team Brian chose choreography instead of competition. He did, however, create medal-winning routines for top skaters, most famously Michael Weiss. Brian choreographed Michael’s free routine in 1995, making perfect use of Michael’s muscular physique and jumping prowess.

Brian realised his dream of seeing Michael compete at the 1998 Olympics. When he began working with Michael in 1995 he didn’t know how much longer he had to live because he had been HIV+ since 1986. He was always open about it and was a leading figure in promoting AIDS awareness within his sport. During the Nagano Olympics CBS broadcast a profile of Brian’s choreography of Michael Weiss’s routines, which can be seen here.

AIDS hit figure skating quite hard in the 1980s and 90s. Four Olympic figure skaters died of the disease – Ondrej Nepala (1989), Rob McCall (1991), John Curry (1994) and Brian Pockar (1995). In the US alone 40 top skaters died of AIDS up to 1993. Brian Wright lost his battle with the disease in 2003.

For more, official, information on the Games go to www.london2012.com

Putting Out the Trans Flags

The transgender community has used several flags and emblems over the years. Even within the trans community itself there are sub-communities which have begun to use their own flags. The design seen most often as the Trans Pride flag is this one.

This was designed by Monica Helms, a transsexual US navy veteran. Like a lot of transsexuals Monica felt that, in her own words, “something was different about me”. Growing up in the 1960s there wasn’t anyone or anything to explain this difference, so she accepted life as a boy while secretly praying to be turned into a girl.

During her time in the US navy Monica began cross-dressing. After leaving the navy she married and fathered 2 sons. It wasn’t until 1987 that she realised she was transsexual and began the transition in 1992.

In 1999 Monica designed the trans flag. As with other flag designers she didn’t feel the Rainbow Pride flag captured the separate identity of transsexuals and transgenders. The colours are baby blue and baby pink representing the traditional male and female colours. The white stripe represents those who are in the process of transitioning, or those who consider themselves to be of a neutral gender.

Monica’s design became accepted around the world quite quickly. In 2000 it was first seen as a flag at Phoenix Pride in Arizona in June. Like the colours of the Rainbow Pride flag the trans flag colours have been used in badges, logos and other designs by the community.

There are other trans flags that have emerged over the years and here are a few.

Perhaps the earliest trans flag is this one was created by the Queer Nation Transgender Focus Group on 17^th October 1991.

Dawn Holland is responsible for the central design, using traditional gay and gender symbolism.

In 1999, at about the time Monica Helms came up with her design, someone on the internet called “Captain John” created this design.

Again, it uses the traditional baby pink and blue. This time a different trans emblem appears in the corner. I haven’t been able to discover if this design was actually flown.

Another popular though less seen trans flag is this one.

It was designed by Jennifer Pellinen and made its debut on her website on 20^th July 2002. Jennifer was apparently unaware of Monica’s design and, like her, wanted to create a separate flag of identity for the trans community. Jennifer’s flag is clearly influenced by the Rainbow Pride flag and represents the various “shades” to transgenderism between the traditional pink and blue gender colours.

Finally, one flag which I personally find distinctive is this one flown in Ottawa, Canada, during the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20^th November (I am not aware of any other cities having their own flags for the Day of Remembrance).

It was designed by Michelle Lindsay sometime before 2009. It incorporates the transgender symbol that is becoming the most popular among several. Although this particular configuration of the male and female gender symbols may have been used before, the present accepted opinion is that it originated with the American Gender Talk radio station sometime before 2002. It was originally the idea of Holly Boswell of North Carolina, who passed the design on to Wendy Parker, who in turn passed it on to the founder of Gender Talk, Nancy Nangeroni, for computer generation.

Several communities who recognise a separate identity within the trans community have also adopted flags and designs.

Olympic Countdown

The 1996 Atlanta Olympics currently holds the record for the most lgbt medals – 6 gold, 4 silver and 11 bronze. Of these only 4 were individual medallists – tennis player Jana Novotná (bronze), swimmer Daniel Kowalski (2 silver, 1 bronze), and cyclists Michelle Ferris (silver) and Judith Arndt (bronze).

Since her last Olympic appearance Jana gained some notoriety by crying on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent when she lost the 1993 Wimbledon final. Also in tennis Gigi Fernandez won her 2^nd gold medal in women’s doubles. Conchita Martínez, having been beaten by Gigi in the semi-final, won bronze by winning in the 3^rd place match.

Australian Daniel Kowalski, in his Olympic debut, became the first swimmer in 94 years to win medals in 3 distances - 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle.

The remaining medallists played in team or pairs sports. In fact team players formed the majority of lgbt athletes in Atlanta (this includes some who also competed individually, e.g. cycling, swimming and equestrianism).

The first team sport is hockey. In the 1992 Barcelona games Alyson Annan played in the Australian national team. They also won the World Hockey Cup in 1994 and the Australian Team of the Year award 3 years running. At the Atlanta games Alyson and the team won gold. Winning bronze in women’s hockey was the Netherlands, of which Alyson’s future life partner Carole Thate was a member.

Women’s football made its debut in Atlanta, providing 3 players and 1 reserve – the most in one sport that year. Pia Sundhage played for Sweden, but Norway had 2 players, Bente Nordby and Linda Medalen. They beat Brazil to win bronze. Saskia Webber was a reserve member of the US team.

Two members of the gold-medal-winning Danish handball team share the same surname but are not related – Anja and Camilla Andersen. Both have handball in their genes with their parents being national handball players, Anja’s father also being an Olympian.

Sheryl Swoopes won the first of her 3 consecutive Olympic gold medals with the US basketball team.

The diving pool provided 3 athletes – Americans Patrick Jeffrey and David Pichler, and Swede Jimmy Sjödin. At the time David was embroiled in a long-running disagreement with the national diving coach over his partner Steve. Accusations of interference in David’s training against both sides resulted in Steve receiving a restraining order. Whether this affected David’s diving or not is difficult to tell, but he only managed 6^th place in the final.

Patrick Jeffrey finished 3 places behind David. When he retired from competition in 1999 Patrick became the diving coach to the national team, coaching David Pichler for the 2000 Olympics.

Blyth Tait, the New Zealand equestrian rider, won 2 medals, an individual gold and a team bronze. The remaining medals were all team bronzes – Natalie Cook (volleyball, Australia), and US equestrians Robert Dover and Guenter Seidel.

Brazilian judoka Edinanci Silva was one of 7 to fail the gender test, but they were all allowed to compete as women. Edinanci was born with both male and female sexual organs and had always felt more female than male. Then, just 3 months before the 1996 Olympics, she completed surgery to become female. Even though Edinanci is one of those women who have a male Y chromosome (see my post on gender testing) the IOC accepted her as female and she has competed at every Olympics since.

I can’t leave the Atlanta Olympics without a mention of the bomb attacks. Even though the bombing of the lesbian bar the Otherside Lounge in Atlanta occurred 7 months after the Olympics had finished, the same bomber was responsible. It was a hate campaign that claimed the deaths of 2 people.

On 27^th July 1996 a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park killing one and injuring 111 others. The following January an abortion clinic was targeted, and after the Otherside Lounge another abortion clinic was bombed. The bomber was a member of a Christian extremist sect with an anti-abortion and anti-gay agenda.

In 5 days time I’ll return to the Olympics proper and look at the effects another tragedy, a natural one, had on one sport in particular.

For more, official, information on the Games go to www.london2012.com  

Putting Out the Bears Flag

Perhaps the most familiar 4 lgbt flags are the Rainbow flag, the Leather flag, the Bi flag, and today’s subject, the Bear flag.

The official name for this is the flag of the International Bear Brotherhood. Its not an official organisation but the name used informally for all lovers of bears and hairy men.

In recent years some controversy has surrounded the origin and design of this flag. Most reference sources refer to Craig Byrnes as its creator. He certainly has the right qualifications – he was a founding member of the Chesapeake Bay Bears group and was Mr. Baltimore Bear Cub in 1993 and Mr. Teddy Bear Leather of Virginia in 1994. He also posed naked in “American Grizzly” magazine and in “American Bear” magazine twice. In the past couple of years, though, Craig’s reputation had been tarnished.

The story of the International Bear Brotherhood flag begins in 1995 when Craig was studying for an undergraduate degree in psychology. His thesis was on the bear community. He was already aware of the Leather Pride flag and he decided to design a flag for the bear community to be included with his thesis.

For his birthday that year Craig’s boyfriend bought him a box of crayons (strange present!). Using these Craig came up with his first design. He then contacted an old boyfriend, Paul Witzkoske, a professional graphic designer. Paul offered his professional advice and suggested some changes. They couldn’t agree on a single design, so Craig suggested they should hold a competition at an up-coming summer pool party of the Chesapeake Bay Bears group and let the bear community decide which to adopt.

Pictured here are the 4 designs Craig and Paul chose to display at the pool party. Two were Craig’s suggestions and two were Paul’s The party guests were asked to place 25 cents in a bucket beneath the flag they preferred. The winner would be the flag with the most money, and the cash went to AIDS charities.

At the end of the pool party the winner was revealed to be this one …

… the one which is now familiar around the world. It was one of Paul’s designs.

Craig Byrnes set up a company called Bear Manufacturing which produced this flag commercially and began to claim sole credit for the design. Debate has been going on in America as to how much credit Paul should get. Generally he never gets a mention but support for his involvement has been growing. The original concept and idea was certainly Craig’s and he should be given full credit for that. But the actual end design, a clear modification of the original design for Craig’s thesis, is Paul Witzkoske’s.

Events involving Craig Byrnes and the courts in Washington DC are outside the scope of this particular post, and some may consider his name taboo in light of them. But in the name of history I think Craig and Paul should be given equal credit for designing the International Bear Brotherhood flag.

Flower Power - By the River Bank

I was hoping to post this very early yesterday because my brother and I were travelling down to London to see the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, but I didn’t get time. We had a wonderful time, and got very wet! I realised last night that today’s post has a river theme. It wasn’t planned, so it seems very topical.

Not all Greek myths were written down in ancient times. Not many people could read or write. So myths were passed on in long verses, epic poems and fables. One flower/plant fable seems to have remained unwritten until the 4^th century.

It occurs in “Dionysaica”, the longest surviving poem, and among the last, from Ancient Greece or Rome. It was written by an Egyptian called Nonnus. The plot follows the exploits of the cross-dressing god of Dionysus and his various adventures in India. It includes the story of his love affair with a young lad called Ampelus (the subject of a future Flower Power post). When Ampelus is killed Dionysus is grief-stricken, so our old friend Eros, the god of gay sex, comforts him by telling him the story of Kalamos and Karpos.

As seems usual with semi-divine youths Kalamos was remarkably gorgeous and athletic. He was the son of Maiandros, the god of the river whose winding and wandering course gives us the word “meander”. Kalamos had a mortal boyfriend called Karpos who was equally gorgeous. Some myths say Karpos was also semi-divine though Nonnus’s “Dionysaica” implies he was mortal.

One day the two youths were enjoying a day beside the Meander river and they decide to have a swimming race to the opposite bank and back again. Kalamos, being the son of that river’s god, was quite literally in his element and he reached the far back first. Realising he had an unfair and unnatural advantage he slowed down on the return leg to let Karpos overtake him and reach the start bank first.

Then a sudden gust of wind and large wave came down the river. Even Kalamos struggled briefly to keep his head above water and when he reached the bank he climbed out and looked around for his boyfriend. Karpos was nowhere to be seen.

When he realised Karpos had drowned Kalamos went into throes of deep grief, and his words take up quite a few lines in the poem. First he denies that his father the river god could have drowned Karpos, then he blames the gods of the four winds.

“My star sank in the stream and hasn’t risen”, he cries. “My morning star has not shone. Karpos is drowned, and why should I see the daylight any more? Who has quenched the light of love? Come along, my boy, why do you stay in the water so long? Have you found a better friend than me? Have you thrown the love of poor Kalamos away so that you can stay with him? If a water nymph has carried you off I will kill them all! Karpos, have you reached the bank further down the river? I’ve shouted till I’m tired and you don’t answer”.

Kalamos can take it no longer and decided to join his boyfriend. “If my father carried you off in the merciless rush of his wave, let him receive his son also in the waters.” In floods of tears he cuts off a lock of his hair (a traditional custom to honour the dead). “Accept this hair and then my body for I can’t see another dawn without Karpos.  Karpos and Kalamos had one life and both one watery death together in the same stream. Build on the river bank, water nymphs, one grave for us both and put this verse on the gravestone, ‘I am the grave of Karpos and Kalamos, a pair of lovers whom the pitiless water slew in days of yore’.” And with those words Kalamos leapt into the river and allowed himself to be drowned.

To honour his self-sacrifice the gods turned Kalamos into a water reed. His name became used in several languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Hebrew and Latin) as the word for a writing pen, as reeds were often fashioned into writing implements.

Karpos, the boyfriend, whose name means “fruit”, lent his name to various flower-related words. From the Latin version of his name comes “carpel”, the female part of a flower, and “carpology”, the study of fruit and seeds.

Putting Out the Rainbow Flag

June is Pride Month. I’m celebrating by presenting the histories of some of the many lgbt flags that you’re almost certain to see at a Pride event this summer. First and foremost is the Rainbow Pride flag. Its history is well documented but this mini series wouldn’t be complete without it.

We have to go back to San Francisco 34 years ago where a small group of volunteers were stitching together the first rainbow flags for the city’s Gay Freedom Day parade.

In the flag’s 30th anniversary year in 2008 the parade and flags were recreated in the Oscar-winning film “Milk”, and it is Harvey Milk who led to the rainbow flag being used as a symbol of protest and gay rights.

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to a local government position in California. Early in 1978 he suggested to a friend, Gilbert Baker, that there should be a logo or symbol the gay community could rally around for the following year’s 10th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Baker who had been designing banners and flags for several years so it is safe to assume that Milk suspected he would come up with a flag.

All of the original flags were hand-dyed and stitched by Baker and 30 volunteers, and on 25th June 1978 they were unfurled for the first time in front of 350,000 people – the largest gay rights parade the world had yet seen. But the original flag (pictured at the top) differs from the one we know today with 2 colours which have gone - the pink stripe at the top and the turquoise stripe.

Just 5 months after the parade, Harvey Milk was assassinated. Almost immediately gay San Franciscans began clamouring for rainbow flags to fly at vigils and protests. But because the original flags were made by a small group of volunteers there was only a handful available.

People turned to flag manufacturers. One began selling flags of the International Order of the Rainbow Girls, a masonic youth movement which used a 7-colour rainbow. The pink stripe of Baker’s flag couldn’t be reproduced because it was custom-mixed by him so was never used again. After the Rainbow Girls flags sold out the manufacturer began making its own rainbow flags.

During 1979 many gay venues and businesses in San Francisco began displaying the flag. The Pride committee decided to use it again for the Freedom Day parade. But after seeing it displayed vertically from a lamp-post they noticed that the central stripe was largely obscured. So the committee dropped the turquoise stripe, turned the indigo stripe to blue, and the present Rainbow Pride flag was born.

Four months later the first March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights took place. At the head of the San Francisco contingent marchers carried the rainbow flag, bringing it to the attention of the rest of America. But for several years it was still considered just a San Francisco flag.

It was also the AIDS crisis that brought the rainbow to the UK. Two men were responsible for this – Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie and the first openly gay member of the General Synod of the Church of England Barnaby Miln.

During 1985 Runcie went to San Francisco to see the devastation caused to the gay community. At the following General Synod he met Miln who asked what the church was doing about AIDS. Runcie gave Miln the job of Advisor on AIDS and Human Sexuality. In 1986 Miln set up a charity called Christian Action of AIDS. In San Francisco he got inspiration from the rainbow flag to create the world’s first ribbon to raise awareness of a specific disease or cause (pictured).

Hundreds of rainbow ribbons were handed out at the General Synod of 1987 where homosexuality was a major subject of debate, worn on the lapels of clergymen everywhere. Even though it wasn’t in the familiar loop it predates the red AIDS ribbon by 6 years. It was also at this Synod that Miln proposed the idea of World AIDS Day.

What put a stop to the Church of England’s support of the gay community was the Local Government Act of 1988 and the infamous Section 28. As a part of government the church had to toe the line and very little came out of the Synod. Even the rainbow ribbon disappeared.

Meanwhile, back in America the Rainbow Pride flag was to develop a new meaning, and again it was San Francisco where it happened. Just what they did, and how the Rainbow Pride flag became a symbol of celebration, will be told at the end of the month.