The Lesbian Flag is a symbol of lesbian pride around the world. What does it look like ?
Most of us know what the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) flag looks like. It is made of 6 horizontal stripes, each stripe having one of the rainbow colors. But did you know there is also a specific lesbian flag ? Or should we say, there are specific lesbian flags.
Indeed, several flags coexist. Several designs have been proposed in the last 25 years but none of them has reached a consensus. Therefore, all these flags can be seen nowadays. So let’s review them in details
1. The labrys lesbian flag
The labrys lesbian flag was designed in the 1999s by artist Sean Campbell. The labrys is a double-edged axe, and it symbolize that women can take care of themselves. This symbol has been used by the feminists since the 70’s.
The black triangle is a reference to the sign lesbian women were forced to wear under the Nazi regime.
The flag features a violet background. This is a reference to the poems of Greek author Sappho. She wrote a lot about Lesbians and made the violet flower as a symbol of lesbian love in her poems.
This flag is still used today but some don’t like the fact it was designed by a man, or disapprove the symbols of violence on it (axes, triangle,…)
2. The lipstick lesbian flag
The lipstick lesbian flag is the first popular flag that used horizontal stripes, like the LGBT flag. It is made of seven stripes, having colors made of a gradient of red and pink, with a white stripe in the center.
It also includes a red kiss logo on the top left corner. This flag has been designed by Natalie McCray in 2010.
This flag was almost completely sidelined when it was revealed that the author had transphobic comments in her blog.
3. The “pink” lesbian flag
This flag is the exact same one than the lipstick lesbian flag, except that the red kiss logo has been removed.
Indeed, some thought the lipstick lesbian symbol excluded part of the community that has a more masculine side.
This flag was probably the first one that suit the community, but it suffers the same critics than his cousin the lipstick lesbian flag about its author.
4. The “orange-pink” lesbian flag
The “orange-pink” lesbian flag was designed by lesbian rights activist and artist, Emily Gwen, in 2018. It is also made of seven horizontal stripe, but has different colors than the previous ones.
When she released the flag, Emily detailed the meaning of each color. They are the following :
- Dark Orange : Gender non-conformity
- Orange : Independence
- Light orange : Community
- White : Unique relation to womanhood
- Light purple : Serenity and peace
- Purple : Love and sex
- Dark purple : Femininity
A 5 stripes version of this flag exist, where the regular orange and regular purple have been removed.
5. The LGBT flag with 2 Venus symbols
One flag that you will see is a variant of the LGBT flag. It consist of the rainbow traditional but it has dark blue square on the top left side. Inside this blue square is drawn two white interlocking Venus symbols. These symbols are those of the lesbian community since the 70’s.
This flag is probably the easiest to understand. If you ask anybody to identity all the flags on this page, he will probably guess only this one. Indeed, with the rainbow flag people will figure out it has something to de with the LGBT community. Then when people see the women symbol, they will probably link the flag to the lesbian community
We hope you enjoyed our blog about the lesbian flag. We hope that this information has been helpful for you. Please feel free to reach out to us via the comment section below. We are always excited to hear from our readers, so .
