June 28, 1998. Both flags measured approximately 50 feet wide and 75 feet long.
Friendly reminder that the leather flag predates almost every other flag. We owe this community to leather daddies and kinksters
In the era of corporate sanitization never forget it was leather daddies and S&M folks who protected some of the earliest pride parades.
“Almost every other flag” is not an exaggeration. There is literally only one Pride flag older than the Leather Pride flag, and that’s the original 8-stripe (and then 6-stripe) rainbow flag.
A quick timeline:
1978: Gilbert Baker (z’‘l) creates the 8-stripe Rainbow pride flag.
1979: For production reasons, the flag is reduced to the 6-stripe version most people know.
1989: Leather Pride flag created by Tony DeBlase & presented at the International Mr. Leather event on 5/28/89.
1995: International Bear Brotherhood Flag designed by Craig Byrnes. Introduced at the Chesapeake Bay “Bears of Summer” events in July 1995.
1995: Red/black/blue polyamory flag with yellow pi symbol debuted by Jim Evans.
1998: Bi Pride flag created by Michael Page. He introduces it at BiCafe’s first anniversary party on 12/5/98.
1999: Monica Helms creates the Transgender Pride flag. She debuts it the next year at a Pride parade in Arizona.
2010: AVEN creates a flag to represent the organization. It is later used as the ace pride flag for the community as a whole.
2010: Jasper V. creates the pan pride flag. This Pride flag debuted on Tumblr!
2011: Marilyn Roxie designs the genderqueer flag.
2012: JJ Poole debuts the Genderfluid flag.
2013: The Intersex Pride flag is created by Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia.
2014: Kye Rowan introduces their creation, the non-binary flag.
And on from there.
So it’s pretty clear that the Leather flag has been an accepted symbol within the queer community for years – and in some cases decades – before more recently-designed flags. This isn’t a case of the flag being “better” or whatever, but it’s kind of undeniable that yes – the Leather community and the queer community have always been undeniably entangled.
The attempts the community is making to distance itself from leatherfolk continues to REALLY bother me.
“Leatherfolk do not belong at Pride” boggles my mind every time I see it. We’ve been here from the beginning!
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