The Leather Pride Flag

It was adopted immediately as the symbol of the Leather (now BDSM) community, appeared in parades and reunions, and has been used ever since.

DeBlase refused to explain the symbolism of the flag, saying that anybody could do it for himself.

A possible explanation is that the heart is for the love between the participants and the love for the others, the black and blue stripes represent leather and denim (for the clothes preferred by the BDSMers) and the central white stripe could mean the purity of the community.

As the gay organizations were active long time before BDSM organizations, the figures of leather dressed bikers or muscular jean dressed cowboys, representing hairy, manly and dominant gays, (as opposed to the effeminate ones) were inherited by the newer heterosexual (or pansexual) BDSM groups, reason for the leather and jean on the flag.

The Flag is a visible element, supposed to be showed with pride, advertising to the world your kind of sexuality. The Emblem, instead, is supposed to be a secret recognition device, to be understood only by our own kind.

There have been many adaptations of the Flag, the most common being replacing the heart by another (usually also red) symbol.

The Flag has not been copyrighted, and is in the public domain.

⁽¹⁾Tony DeBlase, who died in the year 2000, was a relevant personality in the gay and leather communities, founder of the “Leather Archives & Museum” of Chicago. He was also a writer and directed several BDSM oriented magazines, along with his professional activities as a zoologist, involved most of his life in museum work. (back)