Polyamory flag

Blue, red and dark purple with a white chevron and a gold heart, and the older flag with a pi it replaced for many.

What the colours mean

Blue Openness and honesty.
Red Love and attraction.
Dark purple A united non-monogamous community.
White chevron The growth and possibility of the community, set off-centre for non-traditional relationships.
Gold heart Love as the core of ethical non-monogamy, and the energy and perseverance of the community.

The 2022 flag

The flag shown at the top was designed by Red Howell and chosen through PolyamProud, a community project in which 30,827 people voted; the result was announced in November 2022. Howell explained every element: blue for openness and honesty, red for love and attraction, dark purple for a united community, a white chevron for growth and possibility, and a gold heart for love as the core of ethical non-monogamy.

The chevron sits off-centre on purpose, to reflect relationships that do not follow the traditional shape. The result is not official in any formal sense, and some people criticised how few designs reached the final vote.

The 1995 flag

The first polyamory flag was designed by Jim Evans in 1995: blue, red and black stripes with a gold Greek letter pi. In his own words, blue stood for openness and honesty among partners, red for love and passion, black for solidarity with polyamorous people who have to hide their relationships, and gold for the value placed on emotional attachment to others.

He chose pi because the leather flag already used a heart, because pi was easy to type, because it let people recognise each other discreetly, and because poly is a Greek root. Evans placed the flag in the public domain. It was never widely loved in the polyamorous community.

The original polyamory flag, designed by Jim Evans in 1995.

What polyamory means

Polyamory is having, or being open to, more than one loving relationship at a time, with everyone's knowledge and consent. It is a way of structuring relationships, not a gender or an orientation, and it is not the same as being polysexual.

Questions people ask

What does the polyamory flag mean?

On the 2022 flag, blue is openness and honesty, red is love and attraction, dark purple is a united community, the white chevron is growth and possibility, and the gold heart is love at the core of ethical non-monogamy.

Why is there a pi on the old polyamory flag?

Jim Evans chose pi in 1995 because it was easy to type, discreet, and Greek, like the root of the word poly, and because the leather flag already used a heart.

Which polyamory flag is used now?

Both are seen. The Human Rights Campaign now shows the 2022 PolyamProud flag, but the 1995 flag has not disappeared.

In the glossary

Polyamory Metamour Relationship anarchy

Other pride flags

Leather pride flagBlack and blue stripes, one white stripe and a red heart: the flag of the leather, kink and BDSM community.Bear pride flagSeven stripes in the colours of bears' fur, with a black paw print, for the bear community.Transgender flagLight blue, pink and white, in a pattern that reads the same whichever way up you fly it.Rainbow pride flagThe first pride flag, designed in 1978, and still the one most people mean by the pride flag.Progress Pride flagThe rainbow flag with a chevron that brings people of colour and trans people to the front.Bisexual flagPink, purple and blue, with the purple where the other two overlap.Pansexual flagPink, yellow and blue: attraction regardless of gender, with a stripe for people outside the binary.Asexual flagBlack, grey, white and purple, chosen by the asexual community itself in 2010.Demisexual flagThe asexual flag's colours, rearranged around a black chevron.Aromantic flagFive stripes from green to black, with green chosen as the opposite of romance's reds and pinks.Genderfluid flagFive stripes for a gender that moves: femininity, the absence of gender, the mix, all genders and masculinity.Agender flagSeven symmetrical stripes, with black and white for the absence of gender and green for non-binary genders.