British Columbia Gay Flag
Regional Pride Flag ·
The British Columbia flag with its wavy blue and white bars replaced by six rainbow stripes, the gold sun kept over them and the crowned Union Jack kept whole above. One of thirteen Canadian designs Greg Gomes marked as his own. [1]
Key facts
- Designer
- Greg Gomes
- Created
- Published online
- Published online by 2002
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · apparent
- Ratio Notes
- Measured from the recovered artwork, 362 by 218 pixels and 11,700 bytes, the size the page lists. That is close to the 3:5 of the British Columbia provincial flag. Published as apparent: measured from a served thumbnail, not from a specification.
- Represented Identity
- LGBTQ
Status Variant
Archive categories Regional and Language-Specific Pride Flags
Overview
The lower half of the British Columbia flag, ordinarily wavy blue and white bars beneath a setting sun, is replaced here by six horizontal rainbow stripes, with the gold sun kept over them and the Union Jack and its gold crown kept whole above. Greg Gomes published it in the Canadian provincial series and marked it as his own design; the file held here is the one his page served, 362 by 218 pixels. [1] No physical example has been documented.
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- LGBTQ
- National Context
- Canada; British Columbia
Creators
The Creator
Greg Gomes
Designer and publisher
Greg Gomes is credited as the designer of the flags marked on his own pages, and as the publisher of the two sites that carried them. He ran Gay Journey at gayjourney.com, whose footer carries a copyright range beginning in 2002, and the later Gay Flags of the World at gayflags.biz, 2005 to 2011. Both published from American Dimensions, PO Box 573, McKinney, Texas 75070, and both ran the same four series of gay flags: general, national, United States state, and Canadian provincial. A post-office box is a mailing address. It does not establish where Gomes lived, and no source states where any of these files was drawn.
He marked his own designs with a symbol before the flag name, which is what separates the flags he made from the flags he catalogued. The marking is per flag and not every flag carries it: of the forty-seven on the national page, Azerbaijan, Canada and the United States do not. [2] His terms for reuse were set out on the same page, in his own words: the marked designs were his and Gay Journey’s property and protected by copyright; anyone wishing to use one was to contact him and say where it would be used, credit the design to him, and make the flag a clickable link back to gay_flags.htm. He also stated that the marked designs were not for sale through the page. [2]
Outside his own sites the collection was noticed twice on Flags of the World. Francisco Santos wrote on 14 May 2003 that GayJourney.COM carried “lots of rainbows: from Argentina to Wales, EU, UNO, US states, Canadian provinces and general gay flags,” and added that “perhaps not all of these flags are actually used in the real word.” Richard Knipel wrote on 14 June 2004 that most of the flags, “with ‘GJ’ underneath, were designed by the site’s author, Greg Gomes,” and that it was “hard to say how many of these are flying somewhere.” [3] Tomislav Todorović, reading the state series in 2015, recorded that the Wyoming flag was “not marked as his creation,” unlike most images.
One property of the collection recurs across the individual flags and is recorded here rather than on each of them: of the twenty-nine files recovered from the two sites, fifteen share one identical set of six sampled rainbow values, across both the Canadian and the national series. The rainbow arrives in these designs as a fixed component of the collection rather than as a choice made for each flag.
The thirty-one entries held here are not his complete output. Gay Journey and Gay Flags of the World carried further national, United States state, Canadian and general designs for which no artwork has been recovered, and the archive builds entries only for flags it can see. No biographical source about Gomes has been located beyond the two sites and the Texas post-office box, and no photograph of him has been found.
Attribution
- Organization
- Gay Flags of the World
Attribution notes
This flag is one of the thirteen Canadian provincial and territorial designs, and it carries the symbol Gomes placed before a flag name to mark a design as his own rather than one he catalogued. [1] His publication, that marking convention and his reuse terms are set out in the creator record below.
Origin
- Digital Origin
- Gay Flags of the World (gayflags.biz)
- Origin Type
- creation place unknown; published online
- Physical Origin Status
- Not documented.
Represents British Columbia. The design was not made there: it was published through a McKinney, Texas post-office address and the place it was drawn is not documented. [1]
Indigenous land context
First Nations of British Columbia — most of the province is not covered by a historic treaty. Treaty 8 (1899) reaches parts of northern British Columbia. [4] Elsewhere the province is largely outside the historic treaty system, and questions of title have been addressed through the comprehensive land claims process rather than through numbered treaties; the Nisga'a Final Agreement is one result. [5][6]
Colonial / settler context
British Columbia sits mostly outside the historic treaty system that covers the Prairies. Treaty 8, signed in 1899, reaches parts of the north of the province. [4] Across the rest, title has been addressed through the comprehensive land claims process the federal government opened in 1973, in which modern treaties are negotiated with peoples who did not sign historic treaties; the Nisga'a Final Agreement is one such settlement. [5][6] The Union Jack and the crown Gomes retained are British Crown symbols on a provincial flag adopted in 1960 and built on arms granted in 1906, on land whose title was in most cases never surrendered by treaty. No source places Gomes in British Columbia or records consultation with any First Nation there. [4][5][6]
- Indigenous engagement
- None documented. No source records Gomes consulting, or being asked by, any of the Nations or governments named here.
The flag represents British Columbia. Where it was made is not documented. The design was published through Gay Flags of the World (gayflags.biz), run from American Dimensions, PO Box 573, McKinney, Texas, which is a mailing address for the publisher and not evidence of where Gomes lived or worked. No source located places Gomes in British Columbia or identifies him as a resident or community member there. [1]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- Published online
- Published online by 2002; the collection ran to 2011. No physical use documented.
- Creation Bounds
- Four different things are recorded here and they are not the same date. The copyright range on Gay Journey begins in 2002, and the site's flag section is in the Internet Archive from 28 October 2002, which bounds the collection rather than this design. [1] Collection-level publication is documented from outside the sites twice: Francisco Santos described GayJourney.COM on Flags of the World on 14 May 2003 as carrying "lots of rainbows: from Argentina to Wales, EU, UNO, US states, Canadian provinces and general gay flags," and Richard Knipel wrote again on 14 June 2004. Neither report lists or dates an individual flag. [3] Direct documentation of this design is later than either: the Internet Archive index holds a capture of this image file, taken on 11 December 2011. No source dates the design itself, and no flag in the collection carries a date of its own. The year given is the earliest year the collection is documented in publication.
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Rainbow Pride Flag
- Sibling flags
- Alberta Gay Flag, Straight Ally Pride Flag, Anarcha-Queer Flag (rainbow variant), Argentina Gay Flag, Australia Gay Flag, Brazil Gay Flag
+ 44 more
Canadian Pride Flag, Chicago Pride Flag (Rainbow Stripes, Purple Stars), Chile Gay Flag, Dominican Republic Gay Flag, Egypt Gay Flag, European Union Gay Flag, France Gay Flag, Gay Pride Flag of Pakistan, Heteroflexible Pride Flag, Heterosexual / Straight Pride Flag, Homoflexible Pride Flag, India Gay Flag, Italy Gay Flag, Japan Gay Flag, Jewish Gay Pride Flag, Manitoba Gay Flag, Mexico Gay Flag, Netherlands Gay Flag, New Brunswick Gay Flag, Newfoundland Gay Flag, Northwest Territories Gay Flag, Nova Scotia Gay Flag, Nunavut Gay Flag, Ontario Gay Flag, Palestinian Gay Pride Flag, Panama Gay Flag, Philadelphia Pride Flag, Prince Edward Island Gay Flag, Quebec Gay Flag, Rainbow Flag with White Triangle (Sapporo), Rainbow Israel Flag, Rainbow Polish Flag (2014, Angela Getler), Russia Gay Flag, Saskatchewan Gay Flag, Social Justice Pride Flag, South African Gay Pride Flag, Switzerland Gay Flag, Tanzania Gay Flag, Texas Rainbow Flag, Turkish Gay Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2005, Zoccole), Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2016 Tumblr documentation), Victory Over AIDS Flag (1980s, designer unknown), Yukon Territory Gay Flag - Lineage confidence
- high
Two visual sources, one of which the lineage graph can hold and one of which it cannot. The six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag is a direct Pride-flag parent and is registered as one. The Flag of British Columbia is the second visual source, and it is recorded as a structured source-flag relationship in Design rather than as a graph node, because the graph accepts only Encycloflaggia entries and no Pride entry should be invented to create one. The relationship here is: source flag with elements selectively retained. Flags of the World describes the method this whole class of flag follows as "taking an existing flag and 'merging' it with the Rainbow Flag or various GLBT symbols to represent GLBT members of the group the existing flag represents." [3] The other Gomes flags are siblings by collection rather than by descent: one designer, one operation, four series published together under one set of terms. A shared designer is a collection relationship and not a substitute for parentage.
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 4 records across 4 generations.
- Ancestors -3
- Original Rainbow Flag (1978)
- Ancestors -2
- Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)
- Ancestor
- Rainbow Pride Flag
- This record
- British Columbia Gay Flag
Colors & Symbolism
No statement of meaning has been located. The page gives the flags names and nothing more. [1]
Placement: the six stripes fill the lower portion only. The Union Jack, the crown and the sun keep their own colours. These are working values sampled from the surviving artwork at the centre of each band, not published specifications; the collection-level note on the recurring Gomes rainbow values is carried in the creator record rather than repeated on each flag.
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · apparent
- Ratio Notes
- Measured from the recovered artwork, 362 by 218 pixels and 11,700 bytes, the size the page lists. That is close to the 3:5 of the British Columbia provincial flag. Published as apparent: measured from a served thumbnail, not from a specification.
- Additional Symbols
- Union Jack filling the upper portion, gold crown at the centre of the Union Jack, gold half sun with pointed rays rising from the bottom edge
The recovered artwork is 362 by 218 pixels. The page lists the file as 11,700 bytes, which the recovered copy matches exactly, identifying it as the file the page served. [1] Observed in the artwork: The Union Jack occupies 97 of the image's 218 pixels of height, a little under half, while the striped lower portion takes 120; the source flag divides the two halves equally. It is not documented whether this is deliberate or an artefact of the rendering. A single row of black pixels runs along the top edge of the image. The image limits what can be established: The crown is about 29 by 28 pixels; its arches, jewels and the outline of the cap are only broadly legible and cannot be checked in detail. The precise number of the sun's rays is difficult to count where they cross the stripe boundaries. The design is described from the recovered artwork, not from any source that describes it.
No published proportion or construction sheet has been located. The recovered image is a thumbnail served by the page rather than a specification. [1]
The lower portion of the flag of British Columbia, ordinarily wavy bars of blue and white, is here six horizontal stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet from the top. The gold sun is retained over them, drawn as a half disc rising from the bottom edge with long pointed rays that reach up into the yellow and orange stripes; the stripes remain visible between and outside the rays. The upper portion keeps the Union Jack complete, defaced at its centre with a gold crown showing a red cap and a silver base. The rendering is 362 by 218 pixels, with the Union Jack occupying the top 97 pixels and the striped portion the remaining 120.
Source flag and visual comparison
- Source flag
- Flag of British Columbia
- Jurisdiction
- British Columbia
- Relationship
- source flag with elements selectively retained
- Elements retained
- the Union Jack, the gold crown defacing it, and the gold half sun
- Elements altered
- the wavy blue and white bars of the lower half, replaced by six rainbow stripes; the Union Jack occupies a little under half the height here where the source flag divides the two halves equally
The British Columbia flag carries a crowned Union Jack above a setting sun over wavy bars. Gomes recoloured the bars and left the heraldry.
Usage & Adoption
- Current Status
- unknown
No physical use has been documented. [1]
Image Archive
Source Flag and Visual Comparison
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 7 sources
- 1. Designer page Canadian Provincial Gay Flags. Greg Gomes. Gay Flags of the World / American Dimensions, McKinney, Texas (2011-10-13). Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived version
- 2. Designer page National Gay Flags Of The World. Greg Gomes. Gay Journey / American Dimensions, McKinney, Texas. Accessed 2026-08-10 · Archived version
The designer's own page. Cited here for the marking convention, the reuse terms he states, and the three flags of the forty-seven that carry no marker.
- 3. Databases Variations of the Gay Pride Rainbow Flag (1). randy young (editor); reports by Steve Kramer, Francisco Santos and Richard Knipel. Flags of the World (2023-09-30). Accessed 2026-08-10
Read in full. Cited for Kramer's description of the merging method this class of flag follows, and for the two dated outside notices of the Gomes collection, 14 May 2003 and 14 June 2004.
- 4. Government Treaties in the Northwest Territories. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada (2024-04-09). Accessed 2026-08-11
- 5. Encyclopedias & Reference Comprehensive Land Claims: Modern Treaties. The Canadian Encyclopedia. The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada. Accessed 2026-08-11
- 6. Government Nisga'a Final Agreement and Background Information. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada (2024-08-08). Accessed 2026-08-11
- Image file page File:Flag of British Columbia.svg. Wikimedia Commons contributors, after the arms granted 31 March 1906. Wikimedia Commons. Accessed 2026-08-11
The file-description page for the source-flag comparison image in this entry's gallery, read for its licence, authorship and restriction metadata.
Image Sources
- Rendering
- original artwork recovered
- British Columbia gay flag as published by Greg Gomes on the Gay Journey provincial page. · Credit: Design by Greg Gomes, Gay Journey · Gay Journey, Provincial Gay Flags Of CanadaRights Gay Journey identified the marked designs as Gomes's property and asked that reuse be credited to him and linked back to gay_flags.htm. The credit and the link here are placed to those terms as published; the present rights and contact status have not been independently verified. [1]
- Flag of British Columbia (British Columbia), the source flag for this design. The British Columbia flag carries a crowned Union Jack above a setting sun over wavy bars. Gomes recoloured the bars and left the heraldry. Relationship: source flag with elements selectively retained. Retained: the Union Jack, the gold crown defacing it, and the gold half sun. Altered: the wavy blue and white bars of the lower half, replaced by six rainbow stripes; the Union Jack occupies a little under half the height here where the source flag divides the two halves equally. · Credit: Wikimedia Commons contributors, after the arms granted 31 March 1906 · Wikimedia CommonsRights Public domain. Wikimedia Commons marks this file with an insignia restriction: it depicts a flag, coat of arms, seal or other official insignia whose use is restricted in many countries independently of copyright. Reproduced here as a comparison for the Gomes design, not as a representation of any government.