Cecilia Miller is a lesbian love warrior and educator fighting for queer justice and ensuring every shade of the rainbow shines bright & bold!
While many of us are now familiar with the famous rainbow flag, there are also other LGBQT+ flags that each represent the different sex, sexuality, attraction, and gender diversities within our fabulous community.
Even if most queer people identify with the rainbow flag itself, many also desire to fly their own particular flag alongside it. Because, y’all, representation is crucial!
One such flag is the Gay Bear Brotherhood Pride Flag – a flag you might already have seen flown at any number of pride festivals around the world, from Bangkok to Reykjavik…and everywhere in between!
In gay culture, a bear is a larger and often hairier man who projects an image of rugged masculinity. Secondary sex attributes such as the growth of body hair and facial hair (which are typically considered “bear” characteristics) are celebrated in gay bear culture.
The International Bear Brotherhood Flag was created to represent the Brotherhood of Bears and was designed by Craig Byrnes in 1995. His undergraduate degree in psychology involved devising a senior project about the bear culture that had raged since the early 1980s, of which he had first-hand experience – and this flag results from this project.
The flag’s colors are intended to represent the colors of animal bear furs from throughout the world, not necessarily human skin and hair color tones. Dark brown, orange/rust, golden yellow, tan, white, grey, and black are some of the colors included on the flag – along with a bear paw print.
The flag was created with the idea of inclusivity in mind – as the bear community is one of the most inclusive queer tribes there are!
