Palette gallery
The most common flags
There are a few flags and related identities within LGBT+ community
that are more recognizable than the others. Here are the selected ones
that are the most well-known. For other flags, check the other
sections.
The flag of LGBT+ community, sometimes incorrectly associated with
gay men only. Adopted in 1979 after revisions made to the original
design with eight stripes reduced the number of colors to six. The one
you’ll see most often, since it encompasses everyone in LGBT+ community,
no exceptions.
Colors derived from the 2018 design with seven stripes, the third
widespread design. “Lesbian” means “homosexual woman” and is one of the
most known terms from the LGBT+ community. Me and my girlfriend can
never remember which side goes on the top when positioning our pins.
Sometimes “gay” is a synonym to “homosexual”, which would include
lesbians, but this palette is based on a flag for MLM, men loving men,
which is the other meaning of “gay”. The flag itself is inspired by the
lesbian flag.
palette_lgbtq("bisexual")
Originally meant “attracted to both gender”; for gender is now known
to be a spectrum (or perhaps multiple spectra), the meaning was updated
to say “attracted to two or more genders”. “Bisexual” isn’t
synonymical to “attracted to all” anymore, for that there are
“omnisexual” and “pansexual” terms.
palette_lgbtq("transgender")
A transgender person is somebody whose gender doesn’t match AGAB
(assigned gender at birth). It encompasses both binary and nonbinary
gender identities (in fact, currently all nonbinary people are
technically transgender, since most countries only allow one of the two
binary genders to be assigned at birth). The opposite of “transgender”
is “cisgender”.
“Asexual” means “not experiencing sexual attraction”. This does not
imply anything about romantic or tertiary attraction, as asexual person
may be aromantic or alloromantic (see “alloace”). Asexual people are
often nicknamed “aces”. The opposite of “asexual” is “allosexual”,
i.e. any orientation where a person experiences sexual attraction,
whether bi-, homo-, hetero- or any other.
palette_lgbtq("intersex")
A person whose sex characteristics (phenotype, chromosomes, hormonal
profile, etc.) don’t align, i.e. not all of them belong to the same
binary sex (male or female). These characteristics don’t have to be
binary, for most sex characteristic are a spectrum. The opposite of
“intersex” is “endosex”/“perisex”/“dyadic” (personally I prefer the
first term).
palette_lgbtq("nonbinary")
A nonbinary person is somebody whose gender is not one of the two
binary genders, i.e. woman or man. Usually nonbinary identities fall
inside the spectrum between masculinity and femininity, but this need
not be true for any enby (nonbinary person).
Rainbow variants
Although the six-stripe rainbow flag is the most recognizable, there
are other variants, both older and newer. Some try to be more inclusive,
others raise an awareness of some issue. Below are the implemented
ones:
palette_lgbtq("philadelphia")
A 2017 redesign of the 6-stripe rainbow flag adopted first by the
city of Philadelphia that draws attention to the struggles of people of
color within the LGBT+ community.
palette_lgbtq("progress")
A 2018 flag that adds a chevron to the 6-stripe rainbow flag. The
chevron contains both black and brown colors added to Philadelphia
rainbow flag, and transgender flag colors (light blue, pink, white).
Sexualities on A-spectrum
A lot of orientations in LGBT+ community belong to the A-spectrum,
whether sexual, romantic or tertiary. Thus, enough flags were spawned to
justify separating these into their own section.
palette_lgbtq("aromantic")
An aromantic person does not experience romantic attraction towards
anyone.
palette_lgbtq("acesthetic")
“Acesthetic” (also called “anaesthetic”) is a lack of aesthetic
attraction (one of the tertiary orientations) towards other people.
palette_lgbtq("analterous")
“Alterous attraction” is a term for the gray area between romantic
and platonic attraction. A person that does not experience it is called
“analterous”.
palette_lgbtq("asensual")
A person that does not experience sensual attraction, i.e. a desire
for a (possibly intimate) physical contact like cuddling.
palette_lgbtq("ace_spectrum")
This term encompasses all sexual orientations that are characterized
by a complete or partial lack of sexual attraction, e.g. “asexual”,
“demisexual” or “graysexual”.
palette_lgbtq("aro_spectrum")
“Aromantic spectrum” (also called “aro spectrum” or “arospec”) is an
umbrella term for all romantic orientations characterized by a complete
or partial lack of romantic attraction, e.g. “aromantic”,
“demiromantic”, “grayromantic”… analogously to “ace spectrum”.
“Aroace” is a term for individuals experiencing neither romantic nor
sexual attration; in other words, “aromantic asexual”.
“Alloace” means “experiencing romantic attraction and not
experiencing sexual attraction”, not specifying the type of romantic
attraction. “Allo” is a shortening of “alloromantic” and “ace” is a
nickname for “asexual”.
“Aroallo” means “experiencing sexual attraction and not experiencing
romantic one”, regardless of the type of sexual attraction. “Aro” is a
shortening of “aromantic” and “allo” – of “allosexual”.
Other sexualities
Even though the chapter says “sexualities”, romantic and tertiary
orientations belong there as well. Since these sexualities don’t belong
to A-spectrum, their umbrella term would be “allosexual” (and,
analogously, “alloromantic”).
palette_lgbtq("pansexual")
A pansexual person may be attracted to any person regardless of
target’s gender. This sexuality differs from “omnisexual” in that this
attraction is not influenced by gender, does not depend on gender. Also,
pansexuality’s flag is cooler.
palette_lgbtq("androsexual")
“Androsexual” is a term for any person, regardless of their gender,
that is attracted to men or masculine-presenting people. Preferable to
the traditional terms like “straight”/“gay”, since it can be easily used
by non-binary people as well.
palette_lgbtq("gynesexual")
A “gynesexual” person is attracted to women or feminine-presenting
people. This term is superior to “straight [man]” and “lesbian”, since
it does not imply anything about person’s gender and is usable by
non-binary people as well.
palette_lgbtq("abrosexual")
Abrosexuality is defined by the fluctuations of one’s sexual
orientation, whether constant or occasional. It doesn’t specify where on
the sexuality spectrum these fluctuations occur.
palette_lgbtq("lesbian_7")
A 7-stripe variant of the lesbian flag.
A 7-stripe variant of the gay flag.
Genders on fem-masc spectrum
We’ve come to allow a lot of freedom when describing gender, but most
people can describe their gender using terms of “femininity” and
“masculinity”. These are the identities that fit in this space:
A person that is partially a man. The other part of their gender may
or may not include other genders.
palette_lgbtq("demigirl")
A person that is partially a woman. The other part of their gender
may or may not include other genders.
Galactian alignment system
Some non-binary people got tired of having to explain their genders
in binary terms, like in the category above. As such, they created a
gender system with names based on celestial bodies that allows to
specify one’s gender alignment (which does not imply one’s actual
gender).
palette_lgbtq("lunarian")
“Lunarian” means a person of female-aligned identity or whose
expression is feminine-aligned.
palette_lgbtq("solarian")
A non-binary person whose identity is male-aligned or whose
expression is masculine-aligned.
palette_lgbtq("stellarian")
A term for a non-binary person of neutral-aligned identity, unrelated
to manhood and womanhood, however still perceived as gendered.
A non-binary person whose identity is male-aligned or otherwise
connected to manhood. Different from “solarian” in that their identity
does not need to be masculine-aligned.
Other genders
…and all the other terms related to gender that do not fit in the
fem-masc spectrum:
palette_lgbtq("genderfluid")
A gender identity which fluctuates over time between feeling
masculine, feminine, androgynous, and other gender descriptors.
Fluctuations may be random or regular.
palette_lgbtq("genderqueer")
“Genderqueer” is an umbrella for all gender identites that are queer
in one way or another.
An agender person is somebody who doesn’t feel connection with any
gender, who can be described as having no gender.
palette_lgbtq("bigender")
“Bigender” means a gender identity composed of two genders a person
feels strong connection with. They may exist simultaneously or fluctuate
over time. One of the two genders is probably stolen from some agender
person.
Subcultures
While somebody’s sexual orientation isn’t that person’s lifestyle
(even though there are people suggesting otherwise), the terms here
describe the way certain people express and identify themselves in
strong connection with their sexuality. In a way, this is the closest to
“lifestyle” you can get here.
palette_lgbtq("amatopunk")
Amatopunks challenge the amatonormativity, i.e. the societal
expectations that everybody should desire a monogamous sexual and
romantic relationship, exclusive towards polyamorous, asexual, and
aromantic people (as in, belonging to any of these three groups).
Typically “bears” are gay men (or masculine-aligned nonbinary people)
with plethora of body hair and - usually - a sizable overall volume,
whether from being fat, muscular, or stocky.
“Butch” is a term most commonly used to describe a lesbian with a
masculine expression. There exists a variant with 5 stripes too, albeit
far less prevalent.
“Femme” is a term most commonly used to describe a lesbian with a
feminine expression. There are a lot of different proposed flags yet
none in predominant use, and the one included here was chosen for the
best distinguishability of its colors.
Since “bear” triggers a natural association with a high-volume
person, as explained before, the “otter” is its low-volume counterpart;
retaining the other characteristics referring to maleness, gayness, and
hairiness.
Uncategorized
All the terms that do not fit elsewhere.
palette_lgbtq("queerhet")
Queerhets use this term to signalize that allocishets are not the
only heterosexual people in the existence. There exist people who are
both straight and queer – by being either transgender or A-spec.