The bisexual and the transgender flags went up alongside the rainbow and American flags at The Center approximately two weeks ago. To mark the occasion, the Bisexual Foundation and Bisexual Forum are holding a reception at Indulgence Café and Bakery on Friday, July 30. Bisexual Forum founder Fritz Klein and longtime partner, Tom Reise, own and operate Indulgence.

“We really felt strongly that the flags are symbols of those two communities, and it is an ongoing effort to get inclusion of bisexual and transgender issues,” said Richard Woulfe, vice-chair of the Bisexual Foundation.

“It shows that The Center also is very interested in being inclusive of both the bi and trans with the name change that occurred a couple of years ago,” added Paul Furth, a member of the Bisexual Forum and co-founder of Transpire, a local transgender support group. “I think it shows that they really want to include everybody in the community.”

Woulfe and other members of Bisexual Forum discussed the idea of raising the two flags with a member of The Center’s executive board in February, and the idea was reviewed and approved by The Center over the next several months.

The rainbow flag, created by Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978, was created to honor the diversity in sexual identity, but like the pink triangle and the labrys, some in the bisexual and transgender communities feel the rainbow flag is primarily a symbol for gays and lesbians.

“It’s important to have a single flag to represent the entire community; I’m all in favor of that,” said Furth. “I think the difficulty comes in the way that a lot of people in the community don’t feel a part of that. I think it’s important for especially something like The Center, which represents the entire community, to show that in fact it is putting its best foot forward to include everyone.”

“The Center is committed to representing all segments of the LGBT community,” said AJ Davis, director of public policy at The Center, who researched and ordered the flags. “For some, the rainbow flag or the word ‘gay’ or ‘queer’ does represent all of us; for others who have often felt excluded or invisible, the specific mentioning and naming is important. As with our name change two years ago, the flags are intended to represent a welcome to all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and families in our community.”

The bisexual flag was created by Michael Page and unveiled in 1998. According to a written history of the flag on BiFlag.com, its pink, lavender and royal blue colors are gradations of color that can be achieved from mixing the primary colors red (symbolizing heterosexuality) and blue (symbolizing homosexuality).

The transgender flag is light blue, pink and white: light blue symbolizing males, pink representing females and white for those who are gender neutral, genderless, transitioning or Intersex. According to Warrior~Poet resources on Earthlink.net, the pattern on the transgender flag is arranged in such a way that no matter how it is flown it will be correct, symbolic of the fluidity of gender and sexual identity.

Like the rainbow flag, neither the bisexual or transgender flag is patented or trademarked, so that it is available for widespread use.

Prior to the flags, various icons were used as symbols within the bisexual and transgender communities. For the bisexual community, symbols included bi-angles – interlocking pink and blue triangles – and a symbol consisting of three loops. The transgender flag has gone through a series of incarnations as well.

“With the transgender flag, there are basically four different ones that are used by different transgender groups and communities across the country,” Davis explained. “The most important aspect of this challenge was obtaining the one that our San Diego community identifies with and uses. So, after lots of community input and being put in contact with the designer of the transgender flag that our community uses, we were able to do just that. Of course, it had to be be specially made in Florida and shipped here, so it took just a little longer to get the transgender flag flying with the others.”

Furth said that the transgender flag flying above The Center has been used at several other transgender events around San Diego, including the recent Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“Even to this day, there is probably no universal agreement of what the transgender flag is,” Furth said. “I do find it interesting, though, that the various communities throughout the ’90s have picked up flags, including the leather community and the bear community and so on and so on. It’s not unusual that the transgender community would try to get their flag together as well.”

Woulfe said the flags are an effort to have a visible symbol of non-binary gender and sexual orientation, and that both the bisexual and transgender communities continue to struggle with erasure, whether deliberate or not. “In many cases, it’s just a matter of they [gays and lesbians] always just revert back to gay/lesbian, gay/lesbian,” he said. “We put a face for younger people on the fact that this is one of the options for identity.”

The reception at Indulgence begins at 5:00 p.m. with a no-host dinner, and continues with hosted desserts, coffee and music from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Call (619) 299-3404 for more information.