Lesbian Pride Flag: Meaning, History & Colours
The short version
- The current lesbian pride flag has 7 horizontal stripes (dark orange, orange, light orange, white, light pink, pink, dark rose / red), often called the "orange-pink" or "sunset" lesbian flag.
- The 2018 design is widely attributed to a Tumblr user known as Emily Gwen, who proposed it as a more inclusive alternative to earlier lesbian flags.
- Earlier lesbian flags include the 2010 "Lipstick Lesbian" flag, which has been retired by most of the community due to creator-controversy concerns.
- The 7-stripe flag's colours are widely interpreted as: gender non-conformity, independence, community, unique relationships to womanhood, serenity and peace, love and sex, and femininity.
- "Lesbian" today is broadly understood as women, women-aligned non-binary people, and other non-men who are attracted to women and/or non-men.
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. The lesbian flag is one of our consistent top-sellers across pins, shoelaces, and stickers, and lesbian customers regularly come up at our pride festival booth to share what specific iteration of the flag they wear and why.
This guide walks through the lesbian pride flag's evolution: the current 7-stripe orange-pink version, the earlier flags it replaced, who designed each, what the colours mean, and how the modern lesbian community has expanded who the term includes. It's part of our complete guide to LGBTQ+ pride flags.
What does the current lesbian pride flag look like?
The current widely-used lesbian pride flag has 7 horizontal stripes in shades of orange, white, and pink. From top to bottom: dark orange, orange, light orange, white, light pink, pink, and dark rose / red. The flag is often called the "orange-pink lesbian flag" or the "sunset lesbian flag" because of its colour palette.
The 7-stripe version was proposed in 2018 by a Tumblr user known as Emily Gwen, who shared it as a more inclusive alternative to existing lesbian flags. The design caught on quickly and is now the version most commonly flown at pride events and most commonly produced on merchandise (including ours).
A 5-stripe simplified version of Emily Gwen's design also circulates and is functionally interchangeable with the 7-stripe.
What do the colours of the lesbian flag mean?
The widely-accepted interpretations of each stripe:
| Stripe | Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (top) | Dark orange | Gender non-conformity |
| 2 | Orange | Independence |
| 3 | Light orange | Community |
| 4 | White | Unique relationships to womanhood |
| 5 | Light pink | Serenity and peace |
| 6 | Pink | Love and sex |
| 7 (bottom) | Dark rose | Femininity |
The colour scheme deliberately spans masculine-coded and feminine-coded shades, signalling that the modern lesbian community includes butch, femme, gender non-conforming, and non-binary lesbians together under one flag.
What were the earlier lesbian flags?
The 2018 orange-pink flag wasn't the first lesbian flag, just the first one to find broad community acceptance.
The most-circulated earlier flag was the 2010 "Lipstick Lesbian" flag. It featured 7 stripes in shades of pink and red with a white kiss mark in the upper-left corner. The flag was popular for several years but was largely retired after community concerns surfaced about the creator's documented exclusionary statements regarding butch, trans, and non-white lesbians. Most lesbian community spaces have since moved away from the Lipstick Lesbian flag in favour of the 2018 Emily Gwen design. Sites like Autostraddle have covered the transition extensively for anyone wanting more detail on the community conversation.
A 2018 5-stripe simplified version (without the kiss mark) briefly circulated as a transition flag before Gwen's 7-stripe design emerged and became standard.
This kind of flag evolution isn't unusual. Pride flags get redesigned, refined, or replaced when communities decide an existing symbol no longer represents them well. The lesbian community's move from the Lipstick Lesbian flag to the Emily Gwen flag is one of the cleaner examples of that process working as intended.
Who counts as a lesbian today?
The community-current understanding: lesbians are women, women-aligned non-binary people (sometimes using trixic as a more specific identifier), and other non-men who are attracted to women and/or non-men. The definition has expanded over the past two decades to include trans women, non-binary lesbians, and women-aligned folks whose specific gender doesn't fit a strict binary. GLAAD and most major LGBTQ+ organizations have explicitly inclusive lesbian definitions reflecting this shift.
This wasn't always the dominant view. Earlier waves of lesbian feminism in the 1970s and 1980s often defined lesbianism in narrower terms, sometimes excluding bi women, trans women, butch lesbians, or femme lesbians depending on which faction's definition was being applied. The modern community has largely moved past those exclusions; today's flag, language, and community spaces reflect that.
Some lesbians use specific identity labels alongside or instead of "lesbian":
- Butch, masculine-presenting lesbian aesthetic and identity
- Femme, feminine-presenting lesbian aesthetic and identity
- Stud, masculine-presenting lesbian, often used by Black lesbians
- Sapphic, broader umbrella for women and non-men attracted to women, sometimes used as an alternative to "lesbian"
- WLW, "women-loving women," another broader umbrella
A few sub-community flags also exist alongside the main lesbian pride flag. The butch lesbian flag (proposed in 2016, navy and blue stripes with a white centre) and the femme lesbian flag (pinks and a white stripe) sometimes get flown at pride events by people who want to signal both their lesbian identity and their butch/femme aesthetic. Adoption is patchier than the Emily Gwen flag, and many butch and femme lesbians just fly the 7-stripe sunset lesbian flag instead.
The labels aren't required. Plenty of lesbians use only "lesbian" without further specification. For adjacent sapphic identities and the spectrum of attraction-based orientations, see our bisexual and polysexual guide and pansexual canonical.
"Love this! It is beautifully designed and made with high quality materials. Plus the co-founder, Jimmy, was a delight to interact with and provided such thoughtful customer service."
Jillian, on our Lesbian Identity Cube pin
We design lesbian pride pins and lesbian pride shoelaces using the 2018 7-stripe orange-pink design. Browse the full pride pins collection for the complete range.
White shoelaces in the 7-stripe sunset palette also show up at our booth regularly, often paired with cube pins so wearers can flag the same identity from two angles at once. Here's another angle of the shoelaces on a paired surface:
And the original 1.25-inch cube pin, the lesbian-flag flagship in our range:
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the current lesbian pride flag?
The widely-used 2018 lesbian pride flag was designed by a Tumblr user known as Emily Gwen. The 7-stripe orange-pink-and-white design was proposed as a more inclusive alternative to earlier lesbian flags and quickly became the community standard. A 5-stripe simplified version also circulates.
What do the colours of the lesbian flag mean?
The 7 stripes represent (top to bottom): gender non-conformity, independence, community, unique relationships to womanhood, serenity and peace, love and sex, and femininity. The orange-to-pink gradient deliberately spans masculine-coded and feminine-coded shades to include butch, femme, and gender non-conforming lesbians together.
What was the Lipstick Lesbian flag and why isn't it used anymore?
The 2010 Lipstick Lesbian flag was the most-circulated lesbian flag for several years. It was largely retired after community concerns about the creator's documented exclusionary statements regarding butch, trans, and non-white lesbians. Most lesbian community spaces moved to the 2018 Emily Gwen design instead.
Are trans women included in the lesbian community?
Yes. The community-current understanding of "lesbian" includes trans women, non-binary lesbians, and women-aligned non-men who are attracted to women. Most modern lesbian community spaces and organizations are explicitly trans-inclusive. The Emily Gwen flag's design intentionally signals this inclusion through its broad colour palette.
What's the difference between lesbian, sapphic, and WLW?
"Lesbian" is the most specific term, used by people who identify with that identity. "Sapphic" and "WLW" (women-loving women) are wider categories that include lesbians plus bisexual, pansexual, and queer women who are attracted to women. Many people use multiple terms; some prefer one over the others. None is more "valid" than the others.
Carrying the flag forward
The lesbian pride flag has gone through a few iterations in its history, and the move to the Emily Gwen design represents a community making space for more of itself. The 7 stripes intentionally cover butch, femme, gender non-conforming, and non-binary lesbians under one banner, alongside trans lesbians and lesbians of every background.
If you wear a lesbian pride pin, lesbian shoelaces, or one of the more specific identity flags from our complete pride flags guide, you're flying a flag that's been worked over and refined by the community to actually fit the people it's meant for.
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.
Written by Delwin Tan, Co-Founder of Proud Zebra
Published 2026-05-06. Last updated 2026-05-18.
Delwin co-founded Proud Zebra with his partner Jimmy Cheang in late 2020. We're a queer-owned Canadian small business, designing pride pins, stickers, and accessories from the Lower Mainland, BC. We've donated over $10,219.58 CAD to LGBTQ+ organizations to date.
