Queer Vexillology- Flags I have created over the years (and across the internet): A collection

Queer Vexillology- Flags I have created over the years (and across the internet): A collection

In the years since I realised I was queer (2014) and since I was born (2000) the LGBTQ+ community has seen many new pride flags come into being with the express purpose of helping a community feel seen and represented symbolically. Since 2014, the various queer flags, the aromantic flag and the new 5-stripe lesbian flag have all come into being. The LGBTQ+ community has a penchant for making flags as a go-to symbol for any new gender, sexuality or relationship style term. 

Personally, most of the flags I’ve ever created are variations of existing flags, but I have made quite a few in my time which people in my communities use. 

But crucially, last year saw the use of one of my flags in a political sense. I haven’t yet publicly come forward about this, but a few days before the BBC Lily cade article fiasco happened, I was approached online by a BBC reporter whose office is less than two minutes walk away from where I live. I told the whole story on my other twitter account @glassy_vulture. But the image I used as my profile picture where I blew the whistle on predatory BBC behaviour towards young trans people such as myself was an alternative 1999 trans flag I created.

(From left to right: The alternative trans flag I created, both my twitter accounts logged in and the original Johnathan Andrew 1999 trans flag) 

The original flag (right) was created by Johnathan Andrew in 1999 on a transmasculine forum called Adventures in Boyland. He created it independently of Monica Helms and neither flag creator was aware anyone else was making a flag at that time. The alternate design I created (which I will admit I want to update again) keeps the tradition of having a symbol in the hoist, à la the bear, lipstick lesbian and leather pride flags. I added a three-pronged modern trans symbol, to better represent the community as it is today and intensified the purple. The purple is intended to represent nonbinary and genderqueer identities. The white stripes in between the blue and pink have been kept, but I created a large middle stripe to pay homage to the Monica Helms trans flag which we have and use today. Meanwhile, the values of the pink and blue are also from the Helms flag. The number of pink and blue stripes has been increased from 7 to 8 as a reference to the 8 stripes of the original LGBTQ+ rainbow pride flag created by Gilbert Baker in 1978. 

Those of you who read my blog last year will remember the trans leather pride flag I created:

 

(left: my trans leather pride flag design, right: original leather pride flag design)

The leather pride flag (right) was made in 1989 by Tony DeBlase. DeBlase never gave any specific meaning to the colours of the flag and instead left it up to the viewer to decide the meanings. It is for this reason why I kept the blue stripes as seen in the middle of my design, which I interpret as inclusion and solidarity. My design incorporates the trans flag into spaces between the black lines to represent how a trans-specific leather culture has transness interwoven into the scene. I doubled the black lines from 4 to 8 as a nod to Gilbert Baker again- whose original 8 stripe pride flag is especially meaningful to me. The red heart in the hoist is still present- though it is a slightly different shade to make it easier on the eyes with the trans colours. Lastly, the white stripe in the original blended seamlessly with the white stripe in the trans flag to create a wonderful hybrid surrounded by the black lines, which to me stand for the literal leather. 

This next flag is more of a standalone community flag than my other two. It is a flag for the multisexual-spectrum of sexualities. Multisexual is an umbrella term which can describe sexualities with attraction to two or more genders, such as bisexuality, pansexuality, polysexuality or omnisexuality. 

(my multisexual-spectrum /m-spec flag design with its constituent flags) 

The design of the flag is fairly simple. I opted for a 5-stripe flag with a white stripe in the middle, which is representative of nonbinary gender. The pink and blue stripes represent men/masc genders and women/fem genders. But the twist is that each stripe comes from a pre-existing multisexual-spectrum flag. The pinks come from bi and omni, while the blues come from poly and pan. This way, the flag itself is a representation of a union between these communities in their shared multisexuality. (And also is a better representation of a union than the UK’s union flag, in which Wales, where I live, isn’t on the flag at all! Besides, Wales doesn’t need England in order to be stable). The multisexual flag is actually used a lot by some of my friends from the internet! 

Anyway, a Happy New Year if you made it this far! Stay tuned on my twitter for more updates to my LGBTQ+ Welsh Dictionary.