Baker and thirty volunteers hand stitched and hand dyed two huge prototype flags for the parade. The next year Baker approached San Francisco Paramount Flag Company to mass-produce rainbow flags for the 1979 parade. This six color version spread from San Francisco to other cities, and soon became the widely known symbol of gay pride and diversity it is today. It is even officially recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers. The Leather Pride Flag is a symbol for the leather community, which encompasses those who are into leather, Levi's, sado- masochism, bondage and domination, uniforms, cowboys, rubber, and other fetishes.
Bears also tend to be older, and perhaps larger or chubby.
This most recent addition to the gay pride flags attempts to combine several symbols from the bear community. The pink triangle is easily one of the more popular and widely- recognized symbols for the gay community. The pink triangle is rooted in World War II times, and reminds us of the tragedies of that era. Although homosexuals were only one of the many groups targeted for extermination by the Nazi regime, it is unfortunately the group that history often excludes. The pink triangle challenges that notion, and defies anyone to deny history.