I paid close attention to the flags displayed at this year’s Kansas City Pride Festival.
I discussed the common pride flags at the festival in my most recent blog post.
You can read about those common pride flags, and the identities they represent, in my article about the Manhattan, Kansas, pride celebration, where they were also displayed.
In this post, I will discuss the pride flags I observed at the enormous Kansas City Pride Festival only one time each.
To the best of my knowledge, each of these flags only made one appearance at the festival, but it’s possible they were used more often, and I didn’t notice.
It’s also worth noting that there are a near infinite number of pride flags for increasingly obscure sexual orientations and gender identities, which you can find online.
Some of those flags are fascinating, and potentially, even useful.
The flags in this blog post are rare compared to the more common ones, but not nearly as obscure as ones that I have yet to ever see in person.
Queer
I saw this flag for sale at a festival booth. I hadn’t seen it before, so I asked the merchant what it represented.
He told me that it was a queer flag.
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| A booth at the Kansas City Pride Festival displayed a Queer flag. |
The next day, I saw someone wearing the queer flag as a cape.
Queer is used as an umbrella term to describe anyone who is LGBT, which generally means they have a minority sexual orientation or gender identity.
I say generally, because those are the most common identities that are referred to as queer, but the term could also refer to someone who is intersex or has a minority romantic orientation.
Queer, like LGBT itself, is one of the broadest LGBT identities.
This isn’t the only Queer flag. I previously learned about another Queer flag online.
This flag is known as the Queer Chevron flag, because the purple shapes on the flag are apparently known as Chevrons.
The Rainbow pride flag and the Progress pride flag are also used as symbols that represent the entire LGBT community. Both are far, far more common that either of the queer flags discussed in this section.
Gay Man
The rainbow pride flag, which originally primarily represented gay men, is now used to represent the entire LGBT community.
So the Gay Man flag was created to represent gay men specifically.
I saw one person wearing a Gay Man flag as a cape at the KC Pride Festival. The person who displayed the flag also carried a transgender flag.
I also saw one person display the Gay Man flag at last year’s KC Pride Festival.
But it is far, far more common for gay men to display the traditional rainbow flag.
Sometimes, the Gay Man flag is referred to as the MLM flag.
MLM stands for “Men who Love Men.”
This means bisexual men are welcome to use the flag if they wish.
I’ve also seen the Gay Man flag used by transgender men and non-binary people online.
You can learn more about the Gay Man flag, and what the colors of the flag represent, on Tumblr.
Bear
I observed the Bear pride flag in the pride parade.
The Bear pride flag represents gay men who are generally larger, more muscular, and/or more masculine in appearance.
Agender
Several people recorded video of the pride parade. One of them wore an Agender flag.
I also observed an Agender flag at last year's pride festival.
An agender person feels they don’t have a gender.
Someone who is agender may dress or present themselves in a way that is traditionally seen as masculine or feminine, but to them, these are simply things they do because they enjoy them, rather than because they view these things as representing an underlying gender identity.
Agender is a non-binary gender identity. I discussed nonbinary identities, including genderfluid and agender, in an article that was part of series about gender in 2015.
Asexual
An asexual is someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction. An Asexual may or may not experience romantic attraction.
I saw one Asexual flag at this year's festival, and one at last year's festival.
You can learn more about Asexuality and other identities on the Asexual Spectrum by visiting the Asexual Visibility and Education Network.
Demisexual
A Demisexual person experiences sexual attraction only after they develop a close emotional bond with the person they're attracted to.
Demisexual is one of the identities on the Asexual Spectrum.
Omnisexual
I observed someone wearing a T-Shirt that featured a design that incorporated the Omnisexual flag.
An omnisexual can be attracted to men, women, and non-binary people.
For all intents and purposes, omnisexual is a synonym for pansexual, which is a far, far more common sexual identity.
The differences between pansexuality and omnisexuality are slight.
Someone who is omnisexual might say that their attraction to someone is influenced by the other person’s gender, while they imagine that someone who is pansexual experiences attraction that is influenced more by the person they’re attracted to, rather than the person’s gender.
People are welcome to describe their identities in the ways that feel right to them.
But if someone tells you they are bisexual, pansexual, or omnisexual, realize that these terms essentially mean the same thing — they could see themselves dating, and/or having a sexual relationship, with a man, woman, or non-binary person.
Omnisexuals have an ascetically-pleasing flag, although its design could be easily confused with the genderfluid flag.
Polyamorous
I observed someone wearing a hat with the design of a polyamorous pride flag.
A polyamorous person desires or engages in multiple simultaneous romantic or sexual relationships with the consent of everyone involved.
On the other hand, someone who is monogamous engages in an exclusive romantic and sexual relationship with one person at a time.
There are other somewhat common polyamorous flags you may see online. Each polyamorous flag represents the same identity, some people just prefer one design over the others.
Leather
During the pride parade, the KC Pioneers displayed the Leather pride flag, which represents people who enjoy having sex while wearing leather and using leather sex toys.
The KC Pioneers are a Kansas City area LGBT organization. They are based out of Missie B’s, an LGBT bar in Kansas City.
The leather pride flag was one of two fetish pride flags I observed in the parade.
Pony
The Pony pride flag also made an appearance in the pride parade, but that part of the procession was short and I didn’t catch it on camera.
The Pony pride flag represents people who enjoy dressing up as and pretending to be horses while having sex.
This was the second fetish pride flag I observed at the festival.
So that's all of the rare pride flags I saw this year at the Kansas City Pride Festival.
I hope you enjoyed learning about pride flags.
If you haven't already, I recommend watching my video of the Kansas City Pride Parade, which of course featured many colorful pride flags.
