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Sexual Orientation Flags (Australia)

Last modified: 2016-02-27 by ian macdonald
Keywords: leather | heart | stars: southern cross | federation star |
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National flag in pink

[Pride version of national flag in pink] image by Sander Manders, 3 Mar 2007

My wife, who assisted with the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade told me that many people in the crowd and parade itself were waving a white and pink version of the Autralian national flag (pink replacing the blue and red).
Marc Pasquin, 4 March 2007

Yesterday, the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival in Sydney was held. Many participants and onlookers were waving Australian 'gay pride' flags, which were essentially normal Australian national flags with the blue replaced with a mid-shade of pink. As you can see, it is aesthetically fairly pleasing.
Sander Manders, 3 March 2007

Yesterday, I passed a group of motorcycle riders preparing for this year's parade outside the Sydney Cricket Ground. The route where they were assembling was festooned with these pink flags, but the bikes were each decorated with one of these and a rainbow flag together.
Jonathan Dixon, 2 March 2008


National flag with rainbow canton

[Pride version of national flag with rainbow canton] image by Sander Manders, 3 Mar 2007

Another obvious gay pride flag, which consists of the Australian national flag with the Union Jack in the canton replaced by the rainbow flag.
Sander Manders, 3 March 2007


Australian bear pride flag

[Australian bear pride flag] by António Martins and Marcus Schmöger, 24 Aug 2001

This is a "bear pride" variant of the Australian flag with a bear footprint on the Union Jack.
Marcus Schmöger, 24 Aug 2001

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Australian leather pride flag

In September 1989 the first variant of the leather pride flag was seen: An Australian Leather Pride flag with the black-blue-white stripes as the field, the red heart in the canton, and the Australian stars in the fly.
Michael Wilson, 30 Sep 2000

I do not know if the flag had just the Southern Cross or if it included the Federation Star too. The did not include a photo or drawing of the flag. I believe, however, that the flag did have the Federation Star. The following paragraph from the article provides the following details:

The following September, at the next “Mr. Drummer” contest, one of the most interesting events was the arrival of Clive Platman, a New Zealander in San Francisco to represent Australia in the “Mr. Drummer” finals. He brought with him a new version of the flag, its first major variant. Over the now-established stripes, Laurie Lane of “Laurie Lane’s Leather World”, had appliqued the stars that also appear on Australia’s national flag.
The article leads me to believe that the flag did bear the Federation Star. First, it clearly mentions that the flag bore the stars of the Australian national flag, which one would assume would include all the stars. Second, because the Federation Star is the major difference between the Australian and New Zealand flags, and because the flag was identified as being Australian, one would also assume the Federation Star was included. Third, despite being from New Zealand, Mr. Platman was representing Australia in the contest and brought with him the Australian variant. Should he have brought a New Zealand flag instead while representing Australia, then it would have been a noteworthy event in the contest. Nothing of this sort is mentioned in the article.
Michael Wilson, 03 November 2000

I can confirm that [the Australian leather pride flag] does contain the Federation Star. The one I have spotted today (at Bourke Street, Darlinghurst) has however a rather small Federation Star, being only twice the diameter of the seven-pointed stars of the Southern Cross (as opposed to three times the diameter for the Australian National Flag).
Miles Li, 4 October 2002


Bears Canberra

[Canberra bear pride flag] image by Tomislav Todorovic, 28 April 2013

[Canberra bear pride flag] image by Tomislav Todorovic, 28 April 2013

Bears Canberra is a social club for "bear" gay men, based in Canberra. Their logo, which can be seen at the homepages of their website, http://www.bearscanberra.org.au (Image: http://www.bearscanberra.org.au/index_files/image455.gif) and their discussion group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BearsCanberra/ (Image: http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/18355872/homepage/name/homepage.jpg?type=sn) is modeled to resemble a coat of arms and includes the image of a flag which is divided into two fields by a "north to south" diagonal line, the hoist half displaying the colors of gay rainbow flag and the fly half displaying those of the International Bear Brotherhood Flag, but only six colors instead of seven (only one shade of brown) so as to match the number of hoist stripes. The white stars from the national flag of Australia are placed over all, those over the "bear" colors fimbriated black. While the use of this design for real flags has not been verified so far, it does appear on the club caps and shirts which are offered for sale at the club website: http://www.bearscanberra.org.au/index_files/Page1096.htm, either as the part of the whole logo:
Image #1: http://www.bearscanberra.org.au/index_files/image425.jpg 
Image #2: http://www.bearscanberra.org.au/index_files/image427.jpg
or as the standalone emblem: Image: http://www.bearscanberra.org.au/index_files/image423.jpg.

The last example suggests that it is indeed meant to be the club flag. As the logo is embroidered on these items, the stars, being too small to be reproduced by this technique, are omitted from the realized design: Close-up image: http://www.bearscanberra.org.au/index_files/image430.jpg.
Tomislav Todorovic, 28 April 2013