Sapphic flag
Pink and white with a violet in the centre, for women and non-binary people attracted to women.
What the colours mean
- Pink Love.
- The violet A flower long associated with Sappho and with love between women.
What sapphic means
Sapphic is a wide word for women and non-binary people who are attracted to women. It covers lesbians, bisexual and pansexual women and many non-binary people, and it includes trans women without qualification.
Why a violet
The word comes from Sappho, the poet of Lesbos whose surviving fragments mention violets. Violets have since been associated with love between women, and the flag is often explained by the idea that women gave violets to the women they were courting.
Where it comes from
The design spread through the Pride-Flags archive on DeviantArt and Tumblr around 2016 and 2017, in a simplified form of an earlier drawing with two violets. Who drew the first version, and when, is not reliably documented.
Other sapphic flags
Several other sapphic flags exist, including striped designs, and no source measures which one is most used. Many sapphic people fly the lesbian, bisexual or pansexual flag instead, or alongside it.
Questions people ask
What does the sapphic flag look like?
Pink at the top and bottom, a very pale lavender band in the middle, and a violet flower in the centre.
Why is there a violet on the sapphic flag?
Violets are associated with the poet Sappho, whose fragments mention them, and with love between women.
Who created the sapphic flag?
That is not reliably documented. The version in use today was spread by the Pride-Flags archive around 2016.