Victory Over AIDS Flag (1980s, designer unknown)

Overview

To create a visual marker of mourning and solidarity within the existing rainbow flag, by adding a single black stripe at the bottom. The black stripe stood for those lost to AIDS and for those living with HIV. Secondary sources attribute to Matlovich the directive that this stripe be removed and ceremonially burned once a cure was found. ^[1][2]

The Victory Over AIDS flag emerged during the AIDS pandemic in the United States, as deaths mounted through the 1980s and the epidemic drove new forms of political mobilization, including ACT UP (founded 1987) and the AIDS Memorial Quilt, created by the NAMES Project Foundation (1987). Better-known AIDS memorial works of the period are well attributed, but no individual creator or organizing body for this flag is named in the available sources. ^[3][1][2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

AIDS memorial and people living with HIV

Subcommunity

AIDS activism

Movement

1980s AIDS activism in the United States

The flag is closely associated with U.S. AIDS activism of the 1980s and with the LGBT communities most heavily affected by the early years of the pandemic.

Creators

Associated Figure

Sgt. Leonard Phillip Matlovich

Advocate; the burning-ritual directive is attributed to him (not the flag's designer)

Leonard Phillip Matlovich (July 6, 1943, Savannah, Georgia, to June 22, 1988, Los Angeles) was a U.S. Air Force technical sergeant and Vietnam War veteran. He served three tours, was wounded by a landmine at Da Nang, and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Working with the activist Frank Kameny, he set out to become a deliberate test case against the military's ban on gay service members. His March 6, 1975 letter to his Langley AFB commander put him on the September 8, 1975 cover of Time, the first named openly gay person on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine. Discharged that October, he won a 1980 reinstatement order and settled for $160,000. He was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in September 1986 and became a prominent AIDS activist. His last public speech, at the March on Sacramento on May 7, 1988, was built around the rainbow flag. He is buried at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., beneath a stone that bears no name: 'When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.' ^{[5] [6]}

Matlovich's grave has become a continuing memorial site. In 2010 activists held a vigil there before chaining themselves to the White House fence in protest of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' ^[5] His epitaph circulates beyond the cemetery: StoryCorps quoted it on October 29, 2015 for an NPR Morning Edition segment in which a friend recalled him. ^[7] Of the 1975 Time cover, Randy Shilts wrote: 'It marked the first time the young gay movement had ever made the cover of a major newsweekly. To a cause still struggling for legitimacy, the event was a major turning point.' ^[5]

The directive associated with this flag, that the black stripes be removed and burned in Washington when a cure is found, appears only in the flag-guide tradition. ^[3] Neither his standard biography nor his memorial record mentions the flag. ^{[5] [6]} The grave anchors the cemetery's LGBT section and remains an active memorial site: annual LGBTQ veterans' observances, the start of the DC Front Runners Pride Run 5K, a wedding at the graveside in 2011, and roughly 800 virtual tributes left on Find a Grave, continuing into 2026. ^[6][8]

And I want you to look at the flag, our rainbow flag, and I want you to look at it with pride in your heart, because we too have a dream. And what is our dream? Ours is more than an American dream. It's a universal dream. (last public speech, March on Sacramento, May 7, 1988) ^[5]

Motivations

• To memorialize the dead and stand with the living during the AIDS pandemic ^[1]
• To carry an intended future modification: the attributed directive calls for the black stripe to be removed and ceremonially burned once a cure for AIDS is found ^[1]

Attribution notes

No individual designer is named in any of the available sources. Secondary sources state that the flag was 'suggested by a San Francisco organization' or 'a San Francisco group,' without identifying the organization. ^[3][1][2] The year of creation is not consistently documented. Secondary sources give only 'sometime in the 1980s.' Sgt. Leonard Phillip Matlovich (born July 6, 1943; died of AIDS-related complications June 22, 1988) is consistently associated with the flag as its most public advocate. Those secondary sources attribute to him the proposal that, when a cure for AIDS was found, the black stripes be removed from all surviving flags and ceremonially burned in Washington, D.C. This directive is the source of the flag's name. Matlovich is documented as the flag's advocate and the person to whom the directive is attributed, not as its designer. ^[1][2]

Origin

Country

United States

Region / state

California

City

San Francisco

Place Type

Activist organization

Digital Origin

false

Origin attributed to a San Francisco organization (not identified by name), on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone people. ^{[9] [10]}

Indigenous land context

Ramaytush Ohlone — unceded ancestral homeland (Indigenous name: Ramaytush). The Ramaytush Ohlone are the original peoples of Yelamu, the San Francisco Peninsula. ^{[10] [11]} The area now comprising the City and County of San Francisco was inhabited by the Yelamu, an independent tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. ^[12] Before the Spanish arrived in 1769 the Ramaytush Ohlone numbered roughly 1,500 to 2,000 people living in ten small tribal groups; by the end of the Mission Period only a few families had survived. ^{[10] [11]} The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone records that one lineage is known to have produced living descendants today, and the American Indian Cultural District documents four family lineages all descending from a single survivor of the colonization of San Francisco, named Leandra. Those descendants comprise the membership of the Ramaytush Tribe and the staff of the Association. ^{[10] [11]} The land was never ceded, and in the words adopted by San Francisco's own commissions, the Ramaytush Ohlone 'have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place.' ^{[13] [12]} The Commission on the Environment states that the Ramaytush Ohlone 'are not a mythical population of the past, but an integral and active community in the present San Francisco Bay Area region.' ^{[12] [9][10][13][12][11]}

Colonial / settler context

Attributed to a San Francisco organization; San Francisco stands on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. No treaty of cession exists for the San Francisco Peninsula. ^{[9][10][13][12][11]}

Land status

Unceded (no treaty of cession exists)

Continuing presence

The Ramaytush Tribe and the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone are active in the region today: the Farming is Medicine initiative on 34 acres in San Gregorio, a National Park Service curriculum, youth and stewardship partnerships, land-return advocacy, and the campaign to rename half of Mission Dolores Park to Chutchui. The Tribe's own website went online in 2026, with membership applications opening that April. ^{[10] [11]}

Multiple secondary sources state the flag was 'suggested by a San Francisco organization' or 'a San Francisco group.' The organization is not identified by name in any available source. ^[3][1][2]

Dates & Chronology

Period in Use

1980s–present

Creation Bounds

No documented creation date. Upper bound June 22, 1988: the accounts that describe the flag involve Leonard Matlovich, who died on that date, so the flag must predate it for his involvement to be possible. The bound inherits the reliability of that association.

The flag is largely historical now, and its firmest documented use consists of photographs from Guatemala Pride in 2010 and 2011. ^[3] Its legacy is thematic rather than genealogical: the reading of a black stripe on a pride flag as mourning for those lost to AIDS recurs in the Progress Pride Flag (2018), whose designer Daniel Quasar states that its black stripe represents, among other meanings, community members living with and lost to AIDS. Quasar built the Progress design on the Philadelphia flag, whose black and brown stripes represent people of color, not on this flag. No documented design descent runs from the Victory Over AIDS flag to the Philadelphia (2017) or Intersex-Inclusive Progress (2021) flags. ^[14]

The flag is one of the few pride designs meant to be modified at a future date. The directive attributed to Matlovich calls for the black stripes to be removed and ceremonially burned in Washington, D.C. once a cure for AIDS is found. As of 2026, no cure has been found and the directive has not been carried out.

Lineage

Evolved from

Rainbow Pride Flag

Indirect influences

Original Rainbow Flag (1978)

Related flags

Progress+ Flag (Disabled Queer Transmasc Variant), "Ultimate" Inclusive Diversity Pride Flag

A memorial variant of the six-stripe rainbow flag (1979): the standard six stripes with a black mourning stripe added below. It does not continue the design lineage forward and has no documented descendants. No direct design descent is documented to the Philadelphia (2017), Progress (2018), or Intersex-Inclusive Progress (2021) flags. Quasar's Progress black stripe includes AIDS memorialization among several meanings, which creates a thematic parallel rather than a documented design influence. ^[14]

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

Victory Over AIDS Flag (1980s, designer unknown)

Colors & Symbolism

A black stripe added to the bottom of the six-stripe rainbow flag, signifying mourning for those lost to AIDS and solidarity with people living with HIV. Secondary sources attribute to Matlovich the directive that the black stripe be removed and ceremonially burned once a cure for AIDS is found. ^[1][2]

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

Sources differ on the black stripe's emphasis: EuroGay.net (translated at FOTW) gives 'AIDS awareness,' while Jasewells.com gives commemoration, 'the black stripe commemorates those we have lost to AIDS.' ^[3] Both agree the stripe was meant to be removed once a cure was found.

No palette specific to this flag is documented in the available sources, and the two references that publish values disagree. The table follows the Wikimedia Commons rendering. ^[15] FlagColorCodes publishes a different set, violet #732982 against #750787 and blue #004CFF against #004DFF, with Pantone equivalents, but states no basis for them and labels the fifth stripe 'indigo,' a color dropped from the rainbow flag in 1979. ^[17] Neither palette is documented as originating with the flag's unknown designer or manufacturer. In the 1980s, cloth flags would have used whatever rainbow stock was available, plus black. The reconstruction uses the Commons file's nominal 777 x 480 proportions.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

7

Layout

horizontal_stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Black

Seven horizontal stripes of equal height. The first six stripes match the standard six-stripe rainbow pride flag (the 1979 Traditional version, after the hot pink and turquoise were dropped). A single black stripe is added at the bottom. ^[3][1] Photographed examples vary in shade; the violet on the Guatemala Pride 2010 flag was nearly white. ^[3] The rainbow flag has no exact official specification, and shades, ratios and construction vary freely in use. ^[18]

Seven equal horizontal stripes. No aspect ratio was specified by the designer. Flags are manufactured at the standard 3:5 (three feet by five), the ordinary commercial flag size, which is a production convention rather than a design specification. Owner-attested from physical copies; no read source states a ratio.

The only modification from the standard six-stripe rainbow flag is the added black stripe at the bottom, which carries the flag's distinctive meaning. ^[3][1]

Usage & Adoption

Online Usage

Documented historically in pride flag guides including Library.LGBT, the Pride Flag Wiki, the Wikipedia rainbow flag article, and the Flags of the World vexillological database. ^[3][1][2]

Event Usage

Guatemala Pride 2010 (Orgullo Guatemala; violet nearly white on the photographed flag) ^[3], Guatemala Pride 2011 (unusually light violet) ^[3]

Current Status

historical

Largely historical. The firmest documented use is photographic: the flag appears at Guatemala Pride in 2010 and 2011. ^[3] It is now encountered mainly through pride flag guides rather than in current physical use. The reading of a black stripe as AIDS mourning recurs in the Progress Pride Flag, where Daniel Quasar independently assigns that meaning to the black stripe among others, but no design descent from this flag to the Philadelphia, Progress, or Intersex-Inclusive Progress flags is documented. ^[1][14]

Image Archive

Leonard Matlovich

The Grave

Community Documentation

Discourse & Debates

• No designer has been identified. Matlovich is the best-known person associated with the flag, but the available evidence does not establish him as its designer.
• Whether the black stripe in the Progress Pride Flag (2018) inherits this flag's HIV/AIDS meaning, the Philadelphia flag's racial-justice meaning, or both. Daniel Quasar's own statement gives his black stripe both readings: people of color and community members living with and lost to AIDS.

Common confusions

• Sometimes confused with later inclusive pride flags whose black stripes carry partly different meanings. The Victory Over AIDS flag's black stripe is specifically about HIV/AIDS mourning and the burning ritual. The Philadelphia and Progress flags' black stripes carry additional meanings.
• The Leathermen's Rainbow flag replaces the two bottom stripes with blue and black (or, in a reported variant, replaces violet with black), and FOTW notes it 'might be confused with the Victory Over AIDS version.' ^[3]
• Later black-stripe rainbow flags are unrelated designs: the Israeli mourning flags after the 2009 Tel Aviv Agudah shooting (narrow vertical black stripe at the hoist, or a black diagonal), the 2010 San Francisco Proposition 8 protest flag (black stripe at center, between yellow and green), and the 2019 Brent, London flag (black stripe between blue and purple, read as representing the borough's BAME residents). ^[3] Thornhill's 2021 explainer distinguishes the same three designs and records that the Tel Aviv shooting killed two people and wounded fifteen. ^[20]

Sometimes referred to informally as the AIDS Memorial Pride Flag or the Black-Stripe Rainbow Flag. 'Victory Over AIDS Flag' is the title used by the flag-guide sources, taken from the directive about removing and burning the stripe when a cure is found. ^[1]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

1980s standard

• Creator portrait: Leonard Matlovich on the cover of Time, September 8, 1975 · Credit: TIME · fair use pending permission · Wikipedia (non-free file) · archival
• Matlovich with an autographed copy of his Time cover, 1975. ^[5] · Credit: Photographer unrecorded · via Find a Grave (memorial 2660) · fair use pending permission · Find a Grave
• The headstone photographed in 2001. ^[6] · Credit: Rick Mize · via Find a Grave · fair use pending permission · Find a Grave
• Lukee Thornhill's illustrated explainer of the three black-stripe rainbow flags, 2021: Victory over AIDS, the Prop 8 protest flag of 2010, and the mourning flag flown in Israel after the 2009 Tel Aviv Agudah shooting. The three designs and their stripe placements correspond to the black-stripe variants documented at Flags of the World. ^[20] · Credit: Lukee Thornhill (@ProphecyGay), reproduced with credit · X (Twitter)
• The grave circulating on social media: a January 23, 2023 post reproducing the epitaph, recorded at 515,200 views, 2,700 likes and 335 reposts. Visitors leave stones along the top of the stone and rainbow flags at its base. ^[19] · Credit: Screenshot of @HistoryInPics post · grave photographer unidentified · fair use pending permission · X (Twitter)
• A community 'Colors & Meanings' graphic from the r/vexillology discussion of the flag, 2023. The black stripe is glossed 'Those living with, and lost to, HIV/AIDS.' ^[16] · Credit: u/masterdeluxe655, via r/vexillology · Reddit
• The grave at Congressional Cemetery with a memorial wreath. The nameless stone, reading 'When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one,' anchors the cemetery's LGBT section. ^{[6] [8]} · Credit: Maxim Dunlap · via Find a Grave · fair use pending permission · Find a Grave