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Gender and Sexuality Pride Flags

December 4, 2022August 18, 2022 by David Mariner

Here is a quick guide to some of the most common flags used in the LGBT community (and beyond) to describe gender and/or sexuality related identities. While definitions are provided for reference, please know definitions of many of these terms are evolving and changing all the time. I encourage you to explore these identities further to learn more.

Agender Pride Flag

Agender refers to a person A person who does not identify themselves as. having a particular gender. The Agender Pride Flag was designed by Salem X in 2014.

The flag features a mirrored design of seven horizontal stripes. The black and white stripes represent an absence of gender, the gray stripe represents semi-genderlessness and the central green stripe represents nonbinary genders.

Asexual Pride Flag

An aromantic is a person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others. Where romantic people have an emotional need to be with another person in a romantic relationship, aromantics are often satisfied with friendships and other non-romantic relationships. An asexual person may or may not experience romantic attraction (see aromantic) but will feel no need to act out that attraction sexually.

In the Summer of 2010, a number of asexuality sites, led by users on AVEN, came up with a number of designs for an asexuality flag, then held a multi-stage vote to determine the winner. The selected design was created by AVEN user standup

Aromantic Pride Flag

There are two different versions of the Aromantic Pride Flag. This is the one currently most commonly used.

Bisexual Pride Flag

Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior toward more than one sex or gender identity, or romantic or sexual attraction to people of any sex or gender identity; this latter aspect is sometimes termed pansexuality.

The bisexual pride flag was designed by Michael Page in 1998. The first bisexual pride flag was inspired by his work with BiNet USA.

Bear Pride Flag

In male gay culture, a bear is often a larger, hairier man who projects an image of rugged masculinity. Bears are one of many LGBT communities with events, codes, and a culture-specific identity. In many communities bear clubs” have been created to provide social and sexual opportunities. Many clubs are loosely organized social groups; others are modeled on leather biker-patch clubs, with a strict set of bylaws, membership requirements, and charities. Craig Byrnes created the Bear pride flag in 1995.

Genderqueer Pride Flag

Genderqueer describes a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders. The Genderqueer Pride Flag was created by Marilyn Roxie in 2011. This flag has also been adopted by many in the Gender Non-Binary community. While some currently use these two terms interchangeably, others maintain genderqueer and gender non-binary have overlapping, but separate definitions.

Intersex Flag

Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. There are two distinct flags commonly associated with intersex identities. The first one (not pictured here) is derivative of the Trans Pride flag and is not used as commonly these days. The flag shown here was created by Intersex Australia in 2013.

Lesbian Pride Flag

While there have been different versions of the Lesbian Pride Flag over the years, this is the one most commonly used today. Emily Gwen created this flag in 2018 based on the lickstick lesbian flag . This flag retained the seven stripes from the lipstick flag, but changed the top set to orange shades. The stripes, from top to bottom, represent ‘gender non-conformity’ (dark orange), ‘independence’ (orange), ‘community’ (light orange), ‘unique relationships to womanhood’ (white) , ‘serenity and peace’ (pink), ‘love and sex’ (dusty pink), and ‘femininity’ (dark rose).

Leather Pride Flag

Leather culture is most visible in gay communities and most often associated with gay men (“leathermen”), but it is also reflected in various ways in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight worlds. Many people associate leather culture with the consensual exchange of power in romantic and/or sexual relationships. The leather flag was created by Tony DeBlase in 1989. He first presented the design at the International Mister Leather event in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. on May 28, 1989.

Nonbinary Pride Flag

Kye Rowan created the nonbinary pride flag in 2014. It was meant to be flown alongside the genderqueer flag. 17-year-old Kyle Rowan created the binary flag for existing outside binary which is symbolized by the yellow. The white represents all genders, black is no gender, and purple is a mix of genders.

Pansexual Pride Flag

Pansexuals have the capability of attraction to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.

A pansexual could be open to someone who is male, female, transgender, intersex, or agendered/genderqueer.

Poly Pride Flag

Polyamory is the philosophy or state of being in love or romantically involved with more than one person at the same time. Polyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved.

The flag was created by Jim Evans.

The Rainbow Flag

This is the inclusive flag most frequently associated with the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, & questioning communities. The original gay pride flag flew in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978 and was designed by Gilbert Baker. The original Rainbow Flag had an additional hot pink stripe that is no longer used today.

Progress Pride Flag

Graphic designer Daniel Quasar has added a five-colored chevron to the LGBT Rainbow Flag to place a greater emphasis on “inclusion and progression”.

The flag includes black and brown stripes to represent marginalized LGBT communities of color, along with the colors pink, light blue and white, which are used on the Transgender Pride Flag. Quasar’s design builds on a design adopted by the city of Philadelphia in June 2017. Philadelphia’s version added black and brown stripes to the top of the Rainbow Flag, to represent LGBT communities of color.

Transgender Pride Flag

Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex the doctor marked on their birth certificate. Gender identity is a person’s internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or someone outside of that gender binary). For transgender people, the sex they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match. The Trans Pride flag was designed by Monica Helms in 1999

Straight Ally Flag

A straight ally or heterosexual ally is a heterosexual and/or cisgender person who supports equal civil rights, gender equality, LGBT social movements, and challenges homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

Prisoner Survey Underscores How We Are Failing LGBTQ Youth in America

February 8, 2022February 7, 2022 by David Mariner

A report by Black and Pink gives us a better picture of the lived experiences of LGBTQ people in prison. Close to 1,200 prisoners were surveyed in 2014.

Download the Executive Summary and Recommendations

Download the Entire Report Her e

While some of the recommendations in the report stretch the limits of imagination (such as eliminating the criminal justice system entirely), the experiences reported by LGBTQ prisoners are disturbing and demand attention.

One of the most striking pieces of information is just how young many of these individuals were when they were first incarcerated. Approximately 2/3 or respondents were arrested before their eighteenth birthday.

When you look more closely at the factors that may have contributed to their imprisonment, you’ll discover the challenges many LGBT Youth in America face.

Unsafe Schools: Less than a third of respondents completed high school outside of prison.

Homelessness: Close to 20% of respondents reported being homeless prior to arrest, while only 52% reported stable housing.

Unemployment and Criminalized Economies: Over a third of respondents reported being unemployed prior to their incarceration, nearly 7 times the 2014 national unemployment rate in 2014. Many reported engaging in sex work or selling drugs for their survival.

Given the very real challenges young people faced (again, the majority of whom were teenagers at their first arrest) the fact that they ended up in the criminal justice system is not surprising. Deeply troubling, of course, but not surprising.

Once incarcerated LGBTQ Prisoners face many injustices which are documented in this report. Of course, young or old, all LGBTQ prisoners facing these injustices deserve our attention, our support, and our advocacy. Please read the entire report and consider what you can do to make a difference.

Anti-Trans Discrimination in Retail Stores

November 24, 2016May 9, 2016 by David Mariner

A new report published by the Equal Rights Center takes a closer look at the discrimination transgender women face in retail stores. The pilot project was conducted in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Utilizing ‘secret shoppers’, or ‘testers’, the study compared the experiences of transgender women and cisgender women. Some of these tester pairs were African American and some of the pairs were White. This made it possible to also see differences on treatment based on race.

The results will not be suprising to anyone who is familiar with the experiences of Transgender Women.

In 75% of the tests conducted, the transgender tester experienced at least one type of adverse differential treatment and service. The adverse differential treatment included differences in the quality, quantity, and content of the service provided to the testers.

African American transgender testers faced higher rates of verbal harassment and other forms of negative interactions than their white peers. In the jurisdictions with nondiscrimination protectiosn (DC, MD) the white transgender tester experienced significantly less negative interactions (19%) than the African American transgender tester (81%). In the jurisdiction lacking nondiscrimination protections (VA) the African American transgender tester experienced a negative interaction in 57% of the tests, while the white transgender testers experiences negative interactions in 43% of the tests.

This study is a sobering reminder that legislation is needed at the federal level to prohibit public accomodation discriminationcbased on gender identity and expression. Still, passing a law is a beginning, not an end. As this study shows us this kind of discrimination continues even in a place like the District of Columbia, which has strong laws supporting the Transgender community. Legislation has to be coupled with active enforcement of the law. It is also crucial that retail employees are educated about the rights of their transgender community. Further, it is crucial that transgender and gender variant indivduals themselves understand their rights and how to report discrimination when it happens.

Read the entire report here to learn more:

Download the Report

What We Know: LGBT Youth & Family Acceptance

November 24, 2016February 16, 2016 by David Mariner

The What We Know Project at Columbia Law School has released a new research analysis on what scholarly research says about the link between family acceptance and LGBT youth wellbeing. Family rejection, and the fear of family rejection, has always been a major concern for LGBT Youth, particularly transgender and gender non-conforming youth. And it’s a valid concern considering that in the District of Columbia, for example, 43% of homeless youth are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Clearly families that engage in rejecting behavior raise the risk of significant harms for their LGBT children.

There is however, another side to this story. Research shows that on the flip side, parents and families can have a profoundly positive influence when they exhibit affirming behaviors. The important take home message is that even parents that have neutral or negative views about LGBT people can change their ways and exhibit these affirming behaviors when they truly understand how devastating their rejection is.

LGBT Youth are coming out at even younger ages these days and therefore spending more time living with their families. One very important role we can play in supporting LGBT Youth is to reach their parents. Clearly, the work of PFLAG and other organizations that support family members is more important than ever. It also presents a challenge to all of us who work with LGBT Youth to not give up on parents who initially present negative views of LGBT people, and to push for more research on effective interventions to help these parents make the right choices.

Below are some key findings from the Study. Be sure to check out the complete report here. For more information on this topic be sure to check out the amazing work of my friend Caitlin Ryan at the Family Acceptance Project.

Key Findings from the Study

LGBT youth face heightened risks of numerous mental and physical health dangers including depression, suicidality, substance abuse, psychological distress, low self-esteem, HIV/AIDS infection, and others.
Research shows that rejecting behaviors by parents can increase these risks, including contributing to far higher levels of suicidal behavior and depression.
Family can play a key protective role against these physical and mental health risks. Several studies confirmed the importance of sexuality-specific acceptance (over generalized support), and of parental support over peer support.
Research shows that LGBT youth are coming out at younger ages than in the past, which can mean longer periods of time when they are in the home and “out,” and hence a greater chance of both family-related stress and the possibility of positive interventions.
More research is needed on the factors that best predict rejecting family behaviors, the factors that contribute to positive family climates, and intervention approaches with records of evidence-based success; however, a great deal is already known about the information and support that families and LGBT youth need, and parents, practitioners, policymakers and funders should act on this knowledge if they wish to minimize the health risks for the LGBT population.

My Secret App Secrets

December 4, 2016November 18, 2014 by David Mariner

The app secret is officially dead, and for good reason. It has been fading away slowly for some time now, as people realize exposing each other’s secrets is not as fun as it first seems. In honor of it’s demise, however, I would like to share a few of secrets of my own

I once went to trader joes and purchased a package of pre hard boiled eggs and a tub of ready-made hollandaise sauce. What happened next is not something I am proud of.
In my itunes collection I own the Glee version of the Justin Bieber song “somebody to love”
I have a purple satin sleep mask. It helps me sleep at night, and it smells nice.
I would much rather have a bud light lime-a-rita than the craft beer you drink.
Last night I played the game RISK online and took great pleasure in defeating a high school student from Lincoln Nebraska.

This is me. Deal with it.