Trans Bear Flag

Overview

beartrans published the flag acknowledging a resemblance to existing ones, opening "so this may look like other flags that have been done, but this is my take on a trans bear flag". ^[1] Nothing else about its making is documented, and no earlier trans bear flag has been dated.

Identity & Context

For transgender people in bear communities. beartrans made it for "the mlm identity, not an aesthetic flag" and offered it to "all trans mlm". ^[1] The term is used in more than one way. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki lists trans bears among the subculture's terms and, citing Ron Jackson Suresha's Bears on Bears, glosses them as "achillean transmasculine individuals who are hairier and heavy"; that is one source's definition rather than a boundary of the identity, and other designers publishing flags under the same name have used it more broadly. frankzappa1, publishing a different trans bear flag, wrote that "Most of the trans bear flags i saw were very transmasc centric" and named transfeminine, non-binary and lesbian bears among those meant. ^[3][4]

Creators

Attribution notes

beartrans, a Tumblr account since deactivated, published the design with the words "so this may look like other flags that have been done, but this is my take on a trans bear flag (the mlm identity, not an aesthetic flag). Every stripe is a blend of 2 or more colors from the trans and bear flag. all trans mlm are free to use". The post survives in an archived reblog carried on the blog nyational, together with both versions of the artwork. ^[1] The LGBTQIA+ Wiki credits the design to the same account, citing the same capture. ^[3] Nothing further about beartrans is documented, including pronouns. Bear World Magazine, which reproduces the flag, names Craig Byrnes and Paul Witzkoske for the parent flag in the same article and nobody for this one. ^[2]

Origin

Digital Origin

Tumblr

Origin Type

online publication

Physical Origin Status

Physical place of origin unknown.

The flag was first published online, on Tumblr, where the post survives in an archived reblog. No physical place of origin is documented. ^[1][3]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2019

Documented

Documented by 12 January 2019

Creation Bounds

The design is documented on or before 12 January 2019, the date carried by the surviving copy of beartrans's post. Because that copy is a reblog on another account, the date bounds the original rather than giving it, and beartrans opens by saying the flag "may look like other flags that have been done", so both the design and the type may be older than the record of them. ^[1] The LGBTQIA+ Wiki states the flag "was created by deactivated tumblr user beartrans on or before January 12th, 2019", citing the same capture. ^[3] The place and precise date of the flag's making are unknown, and it cannot precede its parent, the International Bear Brotherhood Flag of 1995. ^[2]

Les K. Wright places the flag among the variants made as "the expansion of sex and gender identities under the queer umbrella has been reflected in the still changing variants of the (gay pride) rainbow flag. Similarly, new variants of the bear flag have been created to reflect this diversity in the bear community." No date is given for it, and none for the non-binary bear flag reproduced beside it. ^[2]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

International Bear Brotherhood Flag

Indirect influences

Transgender Pride Flag

Sibling flags

Chicago Bear Pride, Nonbinary Bear Flag

A variant of the International Bear Brotherhood Flag, keeping its seven-stripe structure and equal stripe depths and changing the palette. Bear World Magazine presents it as one of the variants that followed the parent rather than as an independent design. ^[2]

Monica Helms's transgender flag of 1999 is a documented source for the colours rather than for the structure: beartrans describes each stripe as a blend drawn from that flag and this one's parent, and the LGBTQIA+ Wiki repeats it at greater length. Only the blue stripes carry a visible share of it. ^[1][3]

The Non-binary Bear Flag is a parallel recolouring of the same parent, reproduced beside this flag in Bear World Magazine's article. No evidence connects the two designers. ^[2]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.

Ancestor

International Bear Brotherhood Flag

This record

Trans Bear Flag

Colors & Symbolism

This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.

No stripe carries a meaning of its own. beartrans accounts for the palette by derivation instead: "Every stripe is a blend of 2 or more colors from the trans and bear flag". ^[1] The LGBTQIA+ Wiki gives the same explanation at greater length, as "each stripe is a blend of 2 or more colors from the Transgender flag designed by Monica Helms and the International Bear Brotherhood Flag", and states there are "no known meanings" for the stripes. ^[3] Craig Byrnes describes the parent flag's own colours as reflecting real-world species of bears; no source carries that reading across to this variant. ^[2]

No values are published. These are measured from the creator-posted artwork, in which each stripe holds a single flat value; both versions in the post carry the same seven values. The palette is the designer's stated method: beartrans wrote that "Every stripe is a blend of 2 or more colors from the trans and bear flag", and the LGBTQIA+ Wiki gives the same account at greater length, as "each stripe is a blend of 2 or more colors from the Transgender flag designed by Monica Helms and the International Bear Brotherhood Flag". ^[1][3] The measured values are consistent with it: the top stripe is the bear flag's dark brown unmixed, both blue stripes carry one value about three quarters of the way from that brown toward the transgender flag's light blue, and the bottom stripe is about half that brown and half the bear flag's black.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · apparent

Ratio Notes

Measured from the creator-posted artwork: both versions in the post reduce to 3:5 exactly, the pawed artwork at 625 by 375 pixels and the pawless at 1280 by 768. The later reproductions circulate at 600 by 360, the same proportion. ^[1][2]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

7

Layout

horizontal stripes with canton device

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

dark brown, tan, muted blue, cream, muted blue, taupe, very dark brown

Additional Symbols

a black bear paw print with pronounced claws at the upper hoist

Seven horizontal stripes of equal depth. In the creator-posted pawed artwork the black paw is angular and clawed, with five long triangular claws, and is drawn large: it spans from about 2 to 32 per cent of the width and from about 2 to 54 per cent of the depth, reaching almost into the top hoist corner. The creator posted a second version of the flag with no paw at all in the same post. ^[1]

The rendering that circulates in later reproductions, including Bear World Magazine's and the LGBTQIA+ Wiki's, is a standardized redraw: it replaces the clawed paw with the parent flag's own rounded paw, at the parent's size and position, on the same mask as the Non-binary Bear reproduction beside it. That rounded-paw version is not the creator-posted artwork. ^[2]

Seven horizontal stripes, dark brown, tan, muted blue, cream, muted blue, taupe and very dark brown, with a black clawed bear paw print at the upper hoist. A pawless version was published in the same post. ^[1]

Usage & Adoption

Current Status

unknown

No documented use has been located. Bear World Magazine reproduces the flag; no user of it has been identified. ^[2]

Image Archive

The flag it varies

The creator's post

Later reproductions

The other variant

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• Several unrelated designs circulate under the same or similar names, each independently created. None of them is this flag, and exact post permalinks and dates for them have not been located. ^[5][4][6][7]
• mbkieran published one on Tumblr with the note "me and my husband scientifically engineered a trans bear pride flag if anybody wants it :] no need to credit, go crazy". ^[5]
• frankzappa1 published another, writing "made a bear trans flag to unite all trans people who identify with the term bear, not just transmascs. shout out transfemms who identify as a bear or even a lesbian bear, shout out the nonbinaries who identify as bears, and shout out our transmascs who do as well". ^[4]
• rabidfreak published a T-Bear or Transsexual Bear flag, "A flag for those who are T-Bears or Transsexual Bears", requested by an anonymous asker and credited to RabidFreak. ^[6]
• A further design circulates credited to pupiipawzzz on Pinterest, reposted on Tumblr by kaidee-koo alongside the note "Captain Barnacles is a gay transbear!". ^[7]

No criticism or debate about this flag has been located. Wright presents the variants as a response to change rather than a dispute, and the article carries no reaction to them. ^[2]

The transmasculine gloss of trans bear is not the only usage, and this flag's own designer scoped it narrowly: beartrans called it a flag for "the mlm identity" and offered it to "all trans mlm". ^[1] frankzappa1, publishing a different trans bear flag, wrote that "Most of the trans bear flags i saw were very transmasc centric and while thats not a massive issue, I wanted to unite us all under one flag as we all share several things in common; gay, hairy, fat and prideful", naming transfeminine, non-binary and lesbian bears among those meant. ^[4]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

The pawed artwork from the creator's post

• The pawed artwork as the creator posted it, preserved with the post in an archived reblog on nyational. ^[1] · Credit: beartrans · Archived Tumblr post · 625 × 375Rights No licence is documented. Underlying copyright is presumed to rest with the creator.
• The International Bear Brotherhood Flag of 1995, this design's parent. It supplies the seven-stripe structure and, in the later standardized rendering, the rounded paw. ^[2] · Credit: Craig Byrnes, with graphic design by Paul Witzkoske · Encycloflaggia
• The pawless version, published in the same post as the pawed artwork. The creator posted both together; neither is documented as the definitive form. ^[1] · Credit: beartrans · Archived Tumblr post
• The later standardized rendering, as reproduced by Bear World Magazine in 2024: the clawed paw is replaced with the parent flag's rounded paw on the same mask as the Non-binary Bear reproduction. This copy was this entry's primary image before the creator-posted artwork was placed. ^[2] · Credit: Not named · Bear World Magazine
• The Nonbinary Bear Flag, the parallel recolouring reproduced beside this flag in the same article. Its reproduction shares the standardized rounded paw and stripe geometry. ^[2] · Credit: Not named · Bear World Magazine

Archive Notes

The creator's own post survives in an archived reblog, and both its text and its two images are held directly. The text is the only statement by the designer that survives and supplies the scope, the account of the palette and a permission to use; the images establish the artwork and the two versions. The designer credit and the January 2019 bound rest on that same capture, which the LGBTQIA+ Wiki also cites. Bear World Magazine's 2024 article is a later reproduction and establishes none of creator, date or origin.