The Lesbian Flag: Meaning, Colors and History

The most widely used lesbian flag today is the sunset flag, a set of orange, white and pink stripes designed by Emily Gwen in 2018. Its colors stand for things like gender nonconformity, community, peace and femininity. It replaced earlier designs, the 1999 labrys flag and the 2010 lipstick flag, as the community favorite.

The sunset lesbian flag (2018)

In 2018, Emily Gwen shared a new lesbian flag online. The goal was simple: a flag that could include every lesbian, butch and femme, cis and trans, without leaning on any one look.

It caught on fast. Within a few years it was on pins, stickers, Pride parade banners and profile pictures around the world. People often call it the sunset flag because the stripes fade from deep orange through white into rose, like the sky at dusk.

What each stripe means (seven stripe version)

• Dark orange: gender nonconformity.
• Orange: independence.
• Light orange: community.
• White: unique relationships to womanhood.
• Pink: serenity and peace.
• Dusty pink: love and sex.
• Dark rose: femininity.

Notice that the flag makes room for both gender nonconformity and femininity, at opposite ends. That is the point: butches, femmes and everyone in between all get a stripe. The white stripe, about unique relationships to womanhood, makes space for trans lesbians and nonbinary lesbians too.

The five stripe version

Soon after the seven stripe flag appeared, a simpler five stripe version became popular. It keeps dark orange, light orange, white, pink and dark rose, and drops two in between shades. It is easier to print, easier to make into pins and easier to read at small sizes.

Both versions are widely accepted, and most people treat them as the same flag. Use whichever you like.

Lesbian flag hex codes

If you are designing something, these are the commonly used colors for the seven stripe flag, from top to bottom:

• Dark orange: #D52D00
• Orange: #EF7627
• Light orange: #FF9A56
• White: #FFFFFF
• Pink: #D162A4
• Dusty pink: #B55690
• Dark rose: #A30262

For the five stripe version, use #D52D00, #FF9A56, #FFFFFF, #D162A4 and #A30262. You will sometimes see slightly different shades online, since the flag has been redrawn many times. Small differences are fine.

The labrys lesbian flag (1999)

One of the first lesbian flags was the labrys flag, designed by graphic designer Sean Campbell in 1999. It shows a labrys, a double headed axe, set over an inverted black triangle on a purple background.

Each symbol carries history. The labrys, linked in myth with the Amazons, was adopted by lesbian feminists in the 1970s as a sign of strength. The black triangle recalls the badge the Nazis forced on prisoners labeled 'asocial', a category that included some lesbians, and was later reclaimed. Purple and violet have long been linked with sapphic love.

The labrys flag never became the main lesbian flag. Some people felt uneasy that it was designed by a man, and many found its Holocaust imagery heavy for everyday use. It still has fans, especially among people who love its history.

The lipstick lesbian flag (2010)

In 2010, Natalie McCray introduced the lipstick lesbian flag on her blog. It used stripes of pink, red and white, with a red lipstick kiss in the corner. For a while it was widely shared as a general lesbian flag.

Many lesbians rejected it for two reasons. First, the lipstick kiss and all pink palette seemed to center feminine lesbians and leave out butches and other masculine lesbians. Second, people raised objections to comments on the creator's blog that many readers found biphobic, transphobic, racist and butchphobic.

A version without the kiss, often called the pink lesbian flag, circulated for a few years. Most of the community then moved to the sunset flag, which was designed specifically to include everyone.

How to use the lesbian flag

• Fly it, wear it or stick it on your water bottle. There are no special rules or etiquette.
• Use it at Pride, on Lesbian Visibility Day (April 26) or any day you feel like it.
• Bi and pan women who feel connected to lesbian community sometimes wear it alongside their own flags, though the bi and pan flags are theirs to fly too.
• If you are an ally, wearing it to show support is welcome. Just do not use it to claim an identity that is not yours.
• A small pin or sticker is a quiet way to signal to other sapphics, which is very handy for femmes who keep getting read as straight.

Other sapphic symbols

Want to know which lesbian type you are while you are here? Take the free lesbian types test, or read about lesbian history for more of the story behind these symbols.