Today is Lesbian Pride Day, so to celebrate, we’re taking a look at the history, beauty, and controversy surrounding the Lesbian Pride Flag. There are many flags out there representing different groups within the LGBTQ+ community, and lesbians have a long history of different flags being used to represent them.
So, here is everything you need to know about the Lesbian Pride Flag and its evolution over the years!
A man created the first lesbian pride flag
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Graphic designer Sean Campbell designed the first ever lesbian flag, called the Labrys flag.
The first lesbian pride flag features an axe
The Labrys Lesbian Flag features a labry’s (a double sided-axe associated with the Amazons of Greek mythology) emblazoned over the top of am inverted black triangle (the symbol given to mark lesbian in concentration camps during WWII) with a violet background. Sadly, this flag has been adopted by TERFs.
There have been many designs
Since Campbell designed the first Lesbian Pride Flag in 1999, there have been a handful created, but it wasn’t until recently that the community landed on one design.
Someone made a POC-inclusive lesbian pride flag
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Someone made a pride flag to highlight POC lesbians.
There is a Lipstick Lesbian Flag
Natalie McCray designed the lipstick lesbian flag for her blog This Lesbian Life. It features seven strips in a gradient from purple at the top, white in the center, and red at the bottom, with a large red kiss mark on top, and is meant to represent lipstick lesbians.
The Pink Flag
The Pink Flag was first posted in 2015 on the website Deviantart as a more inclusive version of the Lipstick Lesbian Flag because it took that design and removed the kiss mark.
There is controversy
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McCray, the creator of the Lipstick Lesbian Flag, has been accused of making racist, biphobia, and transphobic remarks, while others have pointed out that the design of the flag excludes butches. The Pink Flag, while an improvement on the Lipstick Lesbian Flag, has its detractors because its pink color scheme excludes less feminine lesbians.
The Sunset Lesbian Flag
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Emily Gwen designed a seven-striped flag, often called the Sunset Lesbian Flag, in 2018. Each of the seven gradient stripes that go from orange to dark pink has a special meaning. The stripes represent gender non-conformity, independence, community, unique relationship to womanhood, serenity and peace, love and sex, and finally, femininity.
There is an "official" flag
Although it hasn’t technically been announced as the “official” Lesbian Pride Flag, this simplified 5-stripe version of the Sunset Flag has quickly been adopted by the larger lesbian community.
There may be controversy, but lesbians still have a sense of humor
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Lesbians do love their Subarus!