Queer flag

Nine stripes, from black to black, for everyone who uses queer as their word.

What the colours mean

Pinks and blues Same-gender attraction.
Orange and green Non-binary and gender non-conforming people.
Black and white Asexual, aromantic and agender people.

Where it comes from

The queer flag was created in 2015 by a designer known online as Pastelmemer, and shared through the Pride-Flags archive. The Human Rights Campaign lists it with the same year and meanings.

What the colours mean

The pinks and blues placed side by side stand for same-gender attraction. The orange and green stand for non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and the black and white for people on the asexual, aromantic and agender spectrums.

Not the genderqueer flag

It is easy to confuse with the genderqueer flag, which has three stripes, lavender, white and green, and is about gender rather than queerness as a whole. The queer flag is also much less known than the rainbow flag, which many people simply call the queer flag.

A reclaimed word

Queer was used as an insult for a long time, and not everyone who could use it wants to. The post that shared this flag said as much. For many people it is now a deliberate, open-ended word, and this flag is for them.

Questions people ask

What do the colours of the queer flag mean?

Pinks and blues for same-gender attraction, orange and green for non-binary and gender non-conforming people, black and white for asexual, aromantic and agender people.

Is the queer flag the same as the genderqueer flag?

No. The genderqueer flag has three stripes, lavender, white and green. The queer flag has nine.

When was the queer flag created?

In 2015, by a designer known online as Pastelmemer.

In the glossary

Genderqueer Non-binary A-spec

Other pride flags

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.Straight ally flagBlack and white stripes with a rainbow A: a straight person's way of saying they stand with LGBTQ+ people.Transgender flagLight blue, pink and white, in a pattern that reads the same whichever way up you fly it.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.Genderqueer flagLavender, white and green: androgyny, agender identities and genders outside the binary.