Early in 1996, A man by the name of Craig Byrnes began presenting Washington,?DC area clubs and organizations with a new flag, The ?International Bear Brotherhood Flag.? The flag didn?t just appear. In fact,?the new symbol of bear?pride had an earlier, interesting development.

As a member of the Chesapeak Bay Bears (CBB), Craig had become involved with first-hand experience of the growing bear movement. In the late 80's, Craig thought it might be fitting to design a flag that would best represent the bear community (since there?was no ?official? bear flag) Craig was encouraged by his ex-hubby Bob Nicholson, an Alumni Member of the District of Columbia Bear Club (DCBC).

Bob bought a deluxe box of crayons for Craig's birthday, and Craig began his search of suitable colors for his flag. Craig constructed the original flag drawing from the colors he selected. After scanning the drawing, Craig enlisted DCBC member Paul Witzkoske to create four computer-generated templates from the original artwork made in crayon from which the four variations were sewing machine constructed of lining material. Bob spent several hours on a sewing machine making the first set of 3' x 5' flags out of simple lining material. Craig won approval to display the four prototype flags at the CBB ?Bears of Summer? events in July of 1995. Bears were asked to put a quarter in the appropriate box to indicate which flag they thought would best represent the bear community and the proceeds were donated to CBB to add to its AIDS fundraising collections.

The winning design is a field of simple horizontal stripes with a paw print in the upper left corner?a layout familiar to anyone who has seen the Leather Pride Flag. The colors represent the fur colors and nationalities of bears throughout the world and was designed with inclusivity in mind. Bob Nicholson stitched four copies of the winning design out of standard flag nylon. One was sent to a flag manufacturer for the possibility of mass production and distribution to the bear community. Another original was sent to Lurch in San Francisco as a memento of his visit to Washington, DC and his participation as Master of Ceremonies for the?Bears of Summer? contest. Paul was presented an original hand-sewn flag for assisting Craig in making his design into a computer generated graphic, and Craig and Bob kept the last flag as a reminder of the process.

A Bear Pride New Addition

?The Bear Pride Flag?with the un-ordinary colors?was created in 1995 in the northwest US. With an alteration of the stripes and bear paw. (the flag is?one of the three of the?original concepts) The concept behind this bear pride flag has somewhat of a Native American view (the white, black and brown stripes represent the different 'breeds' of bear in the world. All these bears live between the green of the earth and the blue of the sky while all are watched over by the great Bear Sun).

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