Genderqueer Flag (A Brief History)

The Genderqueer Flag is a symbol of the genderqueer community. Oftentimes a misunderstood term, activists in this community have made efforts to differentiate themselves from other communities.

The Genderqueer Flag (or Genderqueer Pride Flag) has three horizontal stripes in it, each representing a specific aspect of what genderqueer means. The colors of the Genderqueer Flag are purple (top), white (middle), and green (bottom).

Official Genderqueer Flag

Genderqueer Pride Flag History

As previously mentioned, the Genderqueer Flag was designed by Marilyn Roxie in 2010. The first version of the Genderqueer Flag was created in June 2010, the second version was finished in September 2010, and the third and final version of the Genderqueer Flag was completed in June 2011.

However, even with several changes to the Genderqueer Flag taking place in such a small timeframe, those changes were inconspicuous, to say the least.

The Genderqueer Pride Flag is somewhat similar in design to the other popular flags in the LGBTQ+ community, such as the Bisexual, Lesbian, and Pansexual Flag, among others, due to the colored horizontal stripes imbedded with special meaning about each respective community.

Now, while there have indeed been several iterations of the Genderqueer Flag over time, there is likely to be much more stability within the flag's overall design. This is especially due to the fact that the current Genderqueer Flag design hasn't been changed since 2011 and many people have already adopted and accepted that the current design should not change.

The Genderqueer Flag was created by Marilyn Roxie in 2010. While there have been several updates to the Genderqueer Flag design, these changes have been miniscule, such as slightly changing the darkness of the green stripe.

Intentionally, the Genderqueer Pride Flag looks very similar to the British Suffregate Flag or WSPU (Women's Social and Political Union) Flag, using similar colors and format.

According to sources, the term genderqueer is similar to nonbinary, but has a slightly different meaning. The dictionary defines genderqueer as the following: "denoting or relating to a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders."

Nonbinary and genderqueer are often used interchangeably by some people. Nevertheless, not everyone considers these two terms to be synonymous. Thus, why there is a Genderqueer Flag and a Nonbinary Flag so to differentiate one another. Others consider the term genderqueer as an umbrella term to cover any identity that isn't cisgender.

The term genderqueer has also been defined as someone whose gender identity falls on the spectrum between male and female, while nonbinary refers to someone who does not identify as exclusively male or female.

Moreover, without a clearly defined vocabulary, many of these terms end up being somewhat ambiguous and arcane.

The Color Purple in the Genderqueer Flag

The purple or lavender color (#b57edc) found in the first horizontal stripe in the Genderqueer Flag is a combination of blue and pink. These colors are traditionally associated with male (blue) and female (pink) gender identities. With these two colors combined, the lavender color in the Genderqueer Flag is meant to represent androgynes and androgyny.

The purple horizontal stripe has been used on many other LGBTQ+ flags and is a great representation of combining both masculinity and femininity. However, to differentiate the Genderqueer Flag from the other flags in the LGBTQ+ community, the purple stripe is a unique shade of purple.

The Color White in the Genderqueer Flag

The second (middle) stripe in the Genderqueer Flag is white. This white color in the Genderqueer Pride Flag is meant to represent agender identity. This symbol can also be seen with the gender neutral white which is found on the Transgender Pride Flag.

This horizontal white stripe works perfectly as a representation for agender identity as the color white, by definition, is void of any and all color, just like the agender identity is void of any gender. Furthermore, keeping the white stripe in the Genderqueer Flag in the middle also helps to break up the other two dominating colors (purple and green).

The Color Green in the Genderqueer Flag

Once a lighter color of green (#498022), the final horizontal stripe on the Genderqueer Flag is dark green (#498022). This shade of green is meant to represent “third gender” identity. Essentially, this entails those whose identities are defined outside of and without reference to the binary.

This binary, of course, are the male and female identities. The green color represents identities that reside outside of this paradigm.

Conclusion of Genderqueer Pride Flag

The Genderqueer Flag is a symbol of the genderqueer community, and it aims to help spread more awareness about this sect of sexuality, as well as help to clear up some common misconceptions about what it means to be genderqueer.

For one, the terms genderqueer and nonbinary tend to get used synonymously, even though they are in fact different. Unsurprisingly, this makes it very challenging to find statistics about genderqueer demographics that are not deeply apocryphal.

Additionally, it should be understood that there are indeed two very distinct flags for each of the aforementioned communities, both of which look nothing like one another. Thanks to there being two different flags for each of these communities, the misconceptions about genderqueer and nonbinary should hopefully be mended in the near future.

The genderqueer community has come a very long way since the inception of the very first Genderqueer Flag in 2010 and they are likely to continue this progress as time goes on.

All in all, the Genderqueer Flag has proven to be a very iconic symbol of the genderqueer community. As more and more people learn about what it means to be genderqueer, the Genderqueer Flag will indeed become more ubiquitous among the LGBTQ+ community, and beyond.

As a Pride Counselling affiliate, we may receive compensation from Pride Counselling if you purchase products or services through the links provided.