Genderfluid Pride Flag: Meaning, Colours & Guide

Genderfluid Pride Flag

We're Delwin and Jimmy, co-founders of Proud Zebra, a queer-owned Canadian small business designing pride pins and accessories from the Lower Mainland, BC. Genderfluid customers are some of our most loyal community members, and the genderfluid flag is one of the more frequently-asked-about identity flags at our pride festival booth.

This post explains the genderfluid pride flag, its colours, who designed it, what genderfluid means as an identity, and how it relates to other gender identities like non-binary and genderflux. It's part of our complete guide to LGBTQ+ pride flags.

What does genderfluid mean?

Genderfluid describes someone whose gender identity shifts or varies over time. A genderfluid person might feel more masculine on some days, more feminine on others, both at once at times, or neither at other times. The shifts can happen on any timescale, within a single day, week to week, month to month, or in longer arcs.

The fluidity is the identity. Some genderfluid people experience a wide range of gender feelings; others move between just two or three. There's no required pattern or frequency. What unites the experience is that gender isn't static for the person, it moves, and they identify with that movement as a defining feature of who they are. LGBTA Wiki's genderfluid entry is a community-maintained reference covering the term's history and adjacent identities. GLAAD's transgender resources include genderfluid identity in their broader trans/non-binary glossary.

Common things genderfluid is not:

• Not indecision. Genderfluid people aren't "still figuring it out." The fluidity itself is settled.
• Not the same as bigender (where someone has two distinct gender identities they hold in parallel rather than shifting between)
• Not the same as genderflux (which describes the intensity of gender feeling shifting rather than the identity itself shifting)
• Not a phase or a costume. Gender expression might shift visibly with the identity shifts, or it might not, both are valid.

What do the genderfluid flag colors mean?

The genderfluid pride flag has 5 horizontal stripes, equal width. From top to bottom, the gender fluid flag colors and what they represent:

Genderfluid Flag

The flag was designed by JJ Poole in 2012. Poole created the design specifically to give the genderfluid community its own symbol that captured the breadth of gender experience without requiring a person to commit to a single identity stripe. The 5-colour palette is intentionally broad: a genderfluid person can see themselves in some, all, or none of the stripes on any given day, and the flag still represents them.

Genderfluid Pride Flag Cube Enamel Pin

How is genderfluid different from non-binary?

There's overlap, but the two terms describe different things.

Non-binary is a wider category, it includes anyone whose gender identity isn't exclusively male or female. Genderfluid sits under that umbrella for many people who use both terms.

Genderfluid is more specific: it describes a gender that moves. A non-binary person might have a fixed identity that just isn't male or female (agender, neutrois, demigirl, etc.), while a genderfluid person's identity shifts. Genderfluid is also distinct from bigender, bigender people hold two distinct gender identities in parallel rather than shifting between them.

Many genderfluid people identify as non-binary too. Some don't, particularly those whose gender shifts include male or female states and who don't see themselves as "outside the binary" so much as moving across or through it. Either approach is valid.

Genderfluid Pride 1st Edition enamel pin set

"A subtle pin that makes a big statement. Love having it on my shirts."

Garrett O., on our genderfluid flag cube pin set

That review captures one of the most common reasons genderfluid customers buy our pins: a small, subtle visual signal that lets them be seen on the days they want to be visible, without having to perform their identity for everyone in the room. We design genderfluid pride pins and genderfluid lace locks with that subtle-but-meaningful aesthetic in mind.

What's the difference between genderfluid and genderflux?

This trips a lot of people up. The shorthand:

• Genderfluid, the identity itself shifts (between man, woman, non-binary, agender, etc.)
• Genderflux, the intensity of gender feeling shifts, while the identity stays the same

A genderflux person might consistently identify as a woman, but feel more strongly woman-aligned some days than others. A genderfluid person might wake up feeling like a different gender than yesterday. Both experiences are real, and both have their own flags and communities, but they're describing different phenomena.

The terms can layer. Someone might identify as both genderfluid and genderflux (their identity shifts, and the intensity of each shifted state varies too). Most people don't need to subdivide that finely, they pick whichever term fits their experience best.

Genderfluid Pride Proud Cube enamel pin

Genderfluid flag vs Sexual Fluidity flag: how are they different?

This is a question we get constantly, and the search data backs it up: a lot of people typing "sexually fluid flag" or "sexual fluidity flag" or "sexualityfluid" into a search bar land on the genderfluid page by accident. They're related concepts but they're not the same flag, and there are actually two different flags people might be looking for when they say "sexual fluidity flag."

The clean breakdown:

The Fluid flag (Shannon Novak, 2021) is the closest direct match for someone searching "sexual fluidity flag" or "sexualityfluid." Novak is a New Zealand-based activist, artist, and curator who identifies as fluid, and the flag's two colours with a central wave form were designed to represent fluidity across more than one axis, sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender, or expression.

The Abrosexual flag (Mod Chad, 2015) is the answer if someone is specifically asking about sexual orientation that shifts. Abrosexuality is about attraction that changes (gay one day, asexual another, polysexual after that). If your search is specifically about a shifting orientation, the abrosexual flag is the precise match. We cover it in detail in our guide to the abrosexual pride flag.

The Genderfluid flag (JJ Poole, 2012) is for a shifting gender identity, not orientation.

People sometimes use "sexually fluid" loosely to describe any non-fixed attraction, which can include bisexual or pansexual experiences too. If the question is about the specific flag, it's usually the Fluid flag or the abrosexual flag. If it's about the specific gender identity, you're in the right place.

One person can absolutely be more than one of these at once: genderfluid and abrosexual and fluid all at the same time, since they describe independent axes of identity. Like being left-handed and tall and a Capricorn.

Cube pins styled

Genderfluid Pride Flag Proud Cube

Shop the Genderfluid pin →

Frequently asked questions

Customers at Vancouver Pride

Carrying the flag forward

Genderfluid identity has been gaining mainstream visibility for the last decade, and the JJ Poole flag is one of the more frequently flown identity flags at pride events globally. Genderfluid people often appreciate the flag specifically because it captures the breadth of their experience without forcing them to pick a single state.

If you wear a genderfluid pride pin, lace locks, or one of the more specific identity flags from our complete pride flags guide, you're claiming visible space for an identity that's about movement, not categories. Browse the full pride pins collection for the complete range.

We've donated $10,219.58 CAD to LGBTQ+ organizations to date, including Rainbow Refugee, Covenant House Vancouver, BC pride societies, and our charity-pin partners (GLSEN, Out on Screen, CBRC, UNYA). See our donations page for the full list. Every order helps that number grow.

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