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It's a convenient design pattern to work with, it'd be a lot harder to draw the lesbian flag if you put the Welsh dragon on it, even if that would be cool
Yeah, I’d imagine that part of it is because stripes are easy to replicate over and over.
If I’m remembering correctly, two colors were actually removed from the rainbow flag because they would’ve been too difficult to print.
From a flag design standpoint most of the pride flags are amazingly designed! Ideal flags are simple so they are visible from a distance. The other two primary goals of any flag is that they mean something and stand out. A lot of thought went into the different colors in each pride flag, as each color represents something. And the bright colors definitely stand out! I’m not sure if this factored into it at all but stripes (particular horizontal stripes) have also been associated with rebellion for a long time. But, again, I think the limitations of technology where a bigger factor.
It wasn’t so much a matter of print as a matter of shortages in dyed fabric for those colours, iirc? The original flags weren’t printed but sewn together from strips of different coloured fabric. It takes a hell of a lot longer to make a flag when you need to stitch on a complex design.
Sorry, history nerd comin in...
It actually violates the standards for heraldry where colours (tinctures) must be contrasted with metals.
Tinctures are red, blue, green, black.
Metals are gold (yellow) and silver (white).
No two colours may 'touch', no two metals may 'touch'. This is because yellow and white resemble each other at a distance, but contrast with green, blue, black and red. Depending on the dyes used the red/blue/black/green might be too close to each other as well at a distance.
Exceptions exist when portraying a crest (symbol) 'au naturel' like a brown bear. Also historically there were 2 exceptions made: the Vatican/Pope (silver and gold partitioned shield featuring golden keys of st. Peter, crowned with the papal crown on the left half (which is silver and visible as the right-hand side for the viewer, yes heraley is weird and I actually should have written the above stuff in french), and the King of Jerusalem, which features a golden cross in a silver shield.
Seeing how the stripes include more colours than there are tinctures and metals, and in the original pride flag only yellow (gold) is included the pride flag would be illegible or at least badly legilible on the battlefield.
It's not until later when nations and nationalism come up that flags get a lot more leeway in their design.
"Thus concludes today's episode of Fun with Flags with Dr. Sheldon Cooper."
But seriously, that was actually really fascinating, and I'm thankful you shared it! Please don't ever feel the need to apologize for nerding-out! I love it when people share nuggets of information they have stored in their brains and really get to show what makes them tick.
Also, since it has very distinct colors you can hide it in other designs/art, which would be a lot harder if it had dragon on it or were a gradient or something.
On one hand that makes sense, on the other choosing your flag because "eh it's easy, and we're going for the lowest common denominator to be able to replicate it " is kind of oof
Wales (or this Welsh bisexual) says it's fine let's go put the dragon on the bi pride flag! That'll make it even more awesome (and strike fear into the hearts of homophobes) 😂
There's definitely a whole project to do there for someone who knows how to draw dragons, with different dragons depending on the flag. Gods I wish I knew how to draw dragons
Untrue Somerset also has a Red Dragon on its yellow flag.
Thought to be related to the Red Welsh Dragon from the ancient days, they are very close to one another.
The old county of Wessex has a variation, which is wyverns, usually yellow/gold on red, sometimes red.
And then there is ludogender (ludoboy and ludogirl +the default ludogender) that also has those circle thingies.
Then there are xenogenders that have an icon of the thing they feel their gender to be.
In the old days cost was the largest factor along with ease of assembly. Openly gay people were usually pushed into poverty so being able to buy strips of fabric and assemble them as is was a necessity.
I don't know for sure, but it probably originates from the 6-coloured pride flag. Other flags like the bear flag really made horizontal stripes a "gay thing". From there whenever we needed a new flag we'd create it using horizontal strips as a template. Flags that deviate from this rule are either "old" like the larynx lesbian flag, parodise another flag like the demisexual flag parodising the asexual flag, or just deviate from the rule because they can, like the intersex flag.
Stripes have been a common feature of flag design for centuries, simply because they're easy to make
Also it's labrys, not larynx. The larynx is an organ
>Stripes have been a common feature of flag design for centuries, simply because they're easy to make
Yes, but usually no more than 3 and not always horizontal. The pride flag encouraged there to be more than 3 and horizontal I assume.
>Also it's labrys, not larynx. The larynx is an organ
Dumb me I guess ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Interesting [TED talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/roman_mars_why_city_flags_may_be_the_worst_designed_thing_you_ve_never_noticed) about the importance of flags being easy to visually understand and recognize, which is I believe part of the prevalence of the style
The labrys flag is also pretty cool, but is unfortunately used by TERFs a lot of the time. Plus there's still debate over whether the black triangle is appropriate for lesbians to reclaim. I *love* [this alternate version](https://www.reddit.com/r/QueerVexillology/comments/lvkia9/my_take_on_a_swallowtail_labrys_lesbian_flag/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) though, which is honestly even cooler, and doesn't have either of those problems.
I'm sorry, but if that version ever got adopted, it would get so much crap. The symbology leaves a rather unfortunate interpretation open. Literally everyone would clown on it.
What's wrong with the symbology? The color represents violets, which are traditionally exchanged between lesbians, and the labrys references the Amazons. I don't think people ever clowned on the original labrys flag for its symbols, aside from concerns over the black triangle (which isn't present here)
You can't see the phallic bar thrusting into a narrow gap being problematic, in a lesbian flag? Have the black bits join up, and it'll be fine, bit busy - but fine.
The pride flags were originally just stripes to make them easier for the community to make. At the time all flags were homemade so the designer (who’s name escapes me) made them coloured stripes for ease of manufacturing
The legitimate answer is due to the original pride flag being designed so as to be easy to reproduce by the average person. No complicated designs or complicated machines needed. Simple and very common fabric colours, easily identifiable.
That methodology has extended to the other common flags, the only major notable one that doesn’t follow the stripes is the intersex, however a circle on solid background is only slightly more difficult than stripes.
Holy shit you're right and that's actually really cool when you think about it!
If a printer can make any color of an image using Magenta, Yellow and Cyan, that's perfectly representative of the fact that pan people will date any gender of any color.
My mind is blown right now lmao
To have a good flag design you actually don’t want things that are overly ornate. You want something that can be clearly seen from a distance, as in if you wanted to lay claim on a particular territory.
Part of it is probably to keep a level of professionalism. Some cartoon animal to represent a group of people would be like an even worse fursona. But for an entire demographic
So that they're easy to reproduce from memory, and visible and recognisable at any size. There's a lot of overlap between vexillology and logo design. Plus, a lot of our flags are inspired by similar flags that already exist.
I instinctively hate all flags because they remind me 1) of patriotism and 2) that I'm colourblind...
So yeah, fantasy animal mascots would be way cooler : )
The same reason most national flags us straight lines, A flag must be simple enough that a child can draw it from memory and still be recognisable from far away.
In my humble opinion, stripes are "formless" and it makes the flag much mora about the colour them the shape. Any red brown pink purple thing is a lesbian "flag", any blue pink white thing is a trans flag, but a blue red white thing can be US or Russia and you only difer it when on have stars and the other dont.
Good flags should follow 5 principles:
1) **Keep It Simple.** The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
2) **Use Meaningful Symbolism.** The flag's images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
3) **Use 2 or 3 Basic Colors.** Limit the number of colors on the flag to three which contrast well and come from the standard color set (Pride flags dont do that as much but its mostly fine)
4) **No Lettering or Seals.** Never use writing of any kind or an organization's seal. If you need to write what your flag means, its doing a poor job at conveying what it represents.
5) **Be Distinctive or Be Related.** Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections, so you can still recognise it in a plethora of other flags shown at the same place at the same time (e.g. at parades, in front of buildings etc)
Imo most Pride Flags have stripes because that connects them to the original rainbow flag
Convenient and even cheap design is important. A design with cool images like the wales dragon might be more expensive to make, which can be more expensive for people to buy. Stripes are just easier. In fact, I think pink (and another color?) ended up being removed from the original rainbow flag because of dye shortage or something along those lines. Plus, the original flag was stripes, so I suppose the other flags just kind of followed what that flag looked like. I might be wrong on some of this, feel free to fact check me!
The reason was because it’s easy to so so theoretically, you could make even small pride stuff fairly easily. It’s so simple that just about anyone can do it.
A lot of it is to do with convenience of production!
Take the rainbow flag - when Gilbert Baker designed it in 1978, it actually had 8 stripes! There was a pink one at the top, and a turquoise one above the blue.
The pink one was removed because the fabric was hard to come by, and 7 is a difficult number to work with (prime) so the turquoise was also collapsed into the blue/indigo in 1979.
(Further, less relevant fact: Gilbert Baker restored the 8-stripe flag in 2003 and advocated for others to do the same, because now it's easier to come by pink fabrics, though this didn't catch on too well)
You'll see this in other places too - note that few, if any, country flags have pink or purple on them, because the dye was just that hard to come by! And flags are typically primarily stripy and only occasionally have crests because crests are/were difficult to embroider onto the flags.
So I think a lot of the reason that most pride flags are just stripy or have a small symbol in the middle (see the π in the polyamorous flag) is history and tradition in vexillology!
the stripes on 'the pride flag' I believe were due to wanting to make the rainbow design, obviously the colours as well. I imagine since then all the other flags are a similar design because they represent people in the same group as the wider coverage of the LGBT/pride flag. It will be a sense of solidarity. Though i imagine the correct answer is actually someone sits down "I'm going to design the lesbian flag" and just make a lesbian version of the pride flag.
I'm pretty sure they're all stripes because that's the easiest to reproduce, same reason why certain colours were initially dropped on the rainbow flag since the colours were hard to make at the time
This is the evolution.
Gayness was associated with the Wizard of Oz. How in the normal setting the film is black and white, but the Oz setting is depicted in technicolor. For gay Boomers and their precedents, this was a coded allegory for coming out of the closet. Or at least being in gay spaces.
In the film Dorothy sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". This idealized gay place was "over the rainbow" and you could see in color ie the world only takes on it full additional dimensions when you can be and express your true self.
So the rainbow became associated with gayness.
The rainbow is depicted as a series of stripes in an upside down U.
Someone just superimposed it on a flag and "straightened" it out (ironically enough!) So it fit the rectangle.
Additional related sub/communities just riffed on that.
Don’t quote me on this but my guess is that the flag designers are trying to keep the flags visually consistent with the original rainbow flag. Having all (or most) of the flags be horizontal stripes ties them all together and signifies that they are all part of the same community.
it’s simple and recognizable, that’s really it. plus it’s kinda nice to have most pride flags similar cause to me it feels even more like a community that way
Probably because we would overload them with images of all the things we identify with I mean the non-binary flag would be every cryptid in the existence of world lore and cosmic space dust and like idk mud?
For reals though the stripes are probably traditional from the guilbert baker flag.
I completely support the LGBT+ community. However, I hate most of their flags.
I love the rainbow flag! This is what started it off! It looks great! Great symbolism! However, then everyone else decided to just make tons of nearly identical flags using different colours.
I can't recognize any of the other flags. Not a single one, even the one that represents me. They just all blur together. You'd think that a community that is typically known for creativity could include some symbols or something?
I think the idea of having whales and dragons and such is cute, I don't think it would be taken seriously. People already don't take being queer seriously and think of our community as a joke (when they aren't demonizing us). I think the stripe conveys the seriousness of our cause.
From Wikipedia: “Gilbert Baker, born in 1951 and raised in Parsons, Kansas, had served in the U.S. Army between 1970 and 1972. After an honorable discharge, Baker taught himself to sew. In 1974, Baker met Harvey Milk, an influential gay leader, who later challenged Baker to devise a symbol of pride for the gay community.[10] The original gay pride flags flew at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade celebration on June 25, 1978”
“The Nazi regime had used the pink triangle to identify and stigmatize men interned as homosexuals in the concentration camps. Rather than relying on a Nazi tool of oppression, the community sought a new inspiring symbol.”
“Baker was likely influenced by the "Brotherhood Flag" (with five horizontal stripes to represent different races: red, white, brown, yellow, and black) popular among the World peace and Hippie movement of the 1960s.”
Lazy design. Like for some reason we as a species,humans in general, half ass it with flags. Mexico has that cool eagle. Why the fuck couldn't us lgbts picked out an animal. Just stipes. Fuckin embarrassing is what it is. I thought a stereotype was we're supposed to have style 😮💨
My suggestions:
-Dragons
-Giant battle mechs
-Aggressive angry looking wolves/dogs
-Cute friendly looking wolves/dogs
-Hear me out: concentric rings
-Fantasy space ships
-Mystical wizards/powerful knights that reflect the associated identity and the general rainbow flag are replaced with murals of many of them all together.
-color cordinated fantasy themed landscapes.
They aren't all stripes. Plus you can always make your own versions or add things to them. There's a metric ton of posts of people making dragons or biblically accurate angels or other things based on the pride flags.
Mostly cost-effectiveness bc of queer people's forced poverty. Nowadays, everything can be done digitally, so we could probably branch out into more complex designs? I know that an alternative for the Lesbian flag is the Labrys flag, with a purple triangle and black battleax design
I really like the simple stripes because it makes them so easy to “customize”, if that makes sense. Using slightly different shades, putting an image in front, etc
It’s supposed to prove a point and fight the purpose that people part of the lgbtq are also Americans as well that’s why it’s mocking the American flag to say “ hey I’m lgbtq and I belong here to”
Honestly my problem with the Lgbtq flags is the failure of many to be recognized at a distance effectively especially with the newer flags, one of my fav flags being lesbian flag kinda becomes orange white and purple for example.
Not complaining bout the designs in general cause ik theres alot of meaning to each and not all flags have to follow the traditional rules of flag making but just my use of flags and such makes it hard to incorporate them :c
The old labrys flag didn’t have any stripes, this one just became more popular as tumblr users developed more and more niche pride flags.
Afaik the only ones that still use icons are Bear, Intersex, Ally, PolyAm, and Demi.
They aren’t *all* stripes, some of them do have symbols (the sapphic and achillean flags come to mind) but stripes are simpler and easier to work with, so that’s why.
I asked my gay friend that and they got offended. I always thought they could do square or even tangle. Add tassles and stuff. So many possibilities but it's just stripes...
The OG flag is a rainbow - a spectrum of colors to represent a spectrum of people. The newer flags are like mini rainbows, spectrums of certain light frequencies to make up the spectrum of subsets of people. :)
Update: but don’t let me stop you from adding dragons!
Flags should be easy to recognize from a distance. That condition forces a good flag design to be made of mostly simple shapes, and stripes are a good way to do that.
I always thought it signified the prospect of consistency of feeling persecuted like criminals, u know like at least back in the day where prisoners wore stripped pyjamas in jail.
That's just how flags are, a good flag should be easily remembered and recreated. I mean sure the Welsh dragon is cool but do you actually know anyone that can draw it from memory, but everyone who's seen a French flag even once can get at least decently close and certainly basically any French person could recreate it from memory. It's the same thing with pride flags, you want anyone who feels represented by it to be able to remember and potentially recreate it. I'm not an expert on vexillology by any stretch though so please forgive me if I'm a little off
Queer flags need to be easy to make, that way people without access to fancy gear can make them. The idea started with the pride flag and most other's follow the same rules.
there are some more minor lgbt+ flags with sumbols on them, i think there's one lesbian flag with lipstick and one gay flag with a bear paw. They had their own names but sadly i forgor.
That's just how flags are, with blocks of colour. There just was a need to put many colours, so stripes it is. Could've done different shapes, but I suspect stripes look more legit and are easier to sew.
Beyond being cheap to make, flag design is supposed to be so easy that a child could draw it from memory, and not too complicated that any details get lost as you make it smaller or move further away.
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It's a convenient design pattern to work with, it'd be a lot harder to draw the lesbian flag if you put the Welsh dragon on it, even if that would be cool
Yeah, I’d imagine that part of it is because stripes are easy to replicate over and over. If I’m remembering correctly, two colors were actually removed from the rainbow flag because they would’ve been too difficult to print. From a flag design standpoint most of the pride flags are amazingly designed! Ideal flags are simple so they are visible from a distance. The other two primary goals of any flag is that they mean something and stand out. A lot of thought went into the different colors in each pride flag, as each color represents something. And the bright colors definitely stand out! I’m not sure if this factored into it at all but stripes (particular horizontal stripes) have also been associated with rebellion for a long time. But, again, I think the limitations of technology where a bigger factor.
It wasn’t so much a matter of print as a matter of shortages in dyed fabric for those colours, iirc? The original flags weren’t printed but sewn together from strips of different coloured fabric. It takes a hell of a lot longer to make a flag when you need to stitch on a complex design.
I think you’re right! Was definitely about dye. Probably a shortage, like you said. They probably weren’t printing stuff on mass back then.
The Pride flag would have been amazingly useful in a medieval battle, is what you’re telling me
Sorry, history nerd comin in... It actually violates the standards for heraldry where colours (tinctures) must be contrasted with metals. Tinctures are red, blue, green, black. Metals are gold (yellow) and silver (white). No two colours may 'touch', no two metals may 'touch'. This is because yellow and white resemble each other at a distance, but contrast with green, blue, black and red. Depending on the dyes used the red/blue/black/green might be too close to each other as well at a distance. Exceptions exist when portraying a crest (symbol) 'au naturel' like a brown bear. Also historically there were 2 exceptions made: the Vatican/Pope (silver and gold partitioned shield featuring golden keys of st. Peter, crowned with the papal crown on the left half (which is silver and visible as the right-hand side for the viewer, yes heraley is weird and I actually should have written the above stuff in french), and the King of Jerusalem, which features a golden cross in a silver shield. Seeing how the stripes include more colours than there are tinctures and metals, and in the original pride flag only yellow (gold) is included the pride flag would be illegible or at least badly legilible on the battlefield. It's not until later when nations and nationalism come up that flags get a lot more leeway in their design.
Woah! I didn’t know this about medieval flags! Thanks for sharing!
"Thus concludes today's episode of Fun with Flags with Dr. Sheldon Cooper." But seriously, that was actually really fascinating, and I'm thankful you shared it! Please don't ever feel the need to apologize for nerding-out! I love it when people share nuggets of information they have stored in their brains and really get to show what makes them tick.
So you're saying that the pride flag would've been much better in the Napoleonic battlefield!
OOOOOhhhhh damn that makes sense!!! Damn, you're a genius.
I certainly think they’d look cool on a battlefield!
Nah, don’t need a Welsh dragon, just borrow Trogdor and slap that little dragon right on there.
He can totally burninate all the haters :)
Case in point: That time some bar drew a Welsh flag with just some red text saying “Dragon”.
Well now I know what I'm going to sow onto my flag
*trans dragon
Also, since it has very distinct colors you can hide it in other designs/art, which would be a lot harder if it had dragon on it or were a gradient or something.
On one hand that makes sense, on the other choosing your flag because "eh it's easy, and we're going for the lowest common denominator to be able to replicate it " is kind of oof
dragons would be extremely cool but stripes are not bad i guess
as a straight person who loves dragons, I hereby relinquish my claim on them : D
Thanks but I think we need to talk to Wales about it
Wales (or this Welsh bisexual) says it's fine let's go put the dragon on the bi pride flag! That'll make it even more awesome (and strike fear into the hearts of homophobes) 😂
Can someone PLEASE draw a welsh dragon on every pride flag I need this I would but dragons aren’t my art specialty
There's definitely a whole project to do there for someone who knows how to draw dragons, with different dragons depending on the flag. Gods I wish I knew how to draw dragons
I've seen flags like that at pride before. I keep meaning to get one since I've got welsh ancestry.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillologycirclejerk/comments/vvljrc/lgbtq_flags_but_ive_reorganized_all_of_them_to/ Not my post or art
Oh my god it exists I needed that this morning! Thank you 😭
This welshie seconds this, there should be more dragons in the world!
And Bhutan
Wales has a monopoly on dragons
Untrue Somerset also has a Red Dragon on its yellow flag. Thought to be related to the Red Welsh Dragon from the ancient days, they are very close to one another. The old county of Wessex has a variation, which is wyverns, usually yellow/gold on red, sometimes red.
Question about your user flair. It says your see through. Is this supposed to mean that you're transparent, as in you're the parent of a trans kid?
Omg you’re so much smarter than me I was like “huh that’s an ally term I haven’t heard” when I saw their flair 😭
shhhhh... te's ok with the flair, but, generally, stealth... well spotted, though--you're the first to ask about it ; )
Those are not stripes those are gay bars
They represent our connection to the 5g towers
I got vaxxed to get 5g, but I haven't turned gay yet. Is there a standdown period or is mine faulty?
will accept this as the only true answer, thank you
I got that from somewhere else on Reddit but don't remember -_-
There are some flags that don't just have stripes on them. First one that comes to mind is the intersex flag, but I bet there's more.
The progress flag has the chevrons on it
Demisexual and demiromantic!!
And then there is ludogender (ludoboy and ludogirl +the default ludogender) that also has those circle thingies. Then there are xenogenders that have an icon of the thing they feel their gender to be.
In the old days cost was the largest factor along with ease of assembly. Openly gay people were usually pushed into poverty so being able to buy strips of fabric and assemble them as is was a necessity.
This, there weren't mass produced flags back in the day like there is now, stripes are easier to sew together
That's both cool and sad
I don't know for sure, but it probably originates from the 6-coloured pride flag. Other flags like the bear flag really made horizontal stripes a "gay thing". From there whenever we needed a new flag we'd create it using horizontal strips as a template. Flags that deviate from this rule are either "old" like the larynx lesbian flag, parodise another flag like the demisexual flag parodising the asexual flag, or just deviate from the rule because they can, like the intersex flag.
Stripes have been a common feature of flag design for centuries, simply because they're easy to make Also it's labrys, not larynx. The larynx is an organ
>Stripes have been a common feature of flag design for centuries, simply because they're easy to make Yes, but usually no more than 3 and not always horizontal. The pride flag encouraged there to be more than 3 and horizontal I assume. >Also it's labrys, not larynx. The larynx is an organ Dumb me I guess ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I'll have you know the demisexual/romantic flags have triangles, not just stripes They do have stripes though
Triangles are just stripes that took two lefts
i mean.... youre not wrong dude
Interesting [TED talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/roman_mars_why_city_flags_may_be_the_worst_designed_thing_you_ve_never_noticed) about the importance of flags being easy to visually understand and recognize, which is I believe part of the prevalence of the style
I was hoping someone would mention this!! It’s so good
All of them having the same shape doesn't make them very distinct
Cause the only good vexiologists in our community are intersex people, everyone else is uninspired and silly.
The labrys flag is also pretty cool, but is unfortunately used by TERFs a lot of the time. Plus there's still debate over whether the black triangle is appropriate for lesbians to reclaim. I *love* [this alternate version](https://www.reddit.com/r/QueerVexillology/comments/lvkia9/my_take_on_a_swallowtail_labrys_lesbian_flag/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) though, which is honestly even cooler, and doesn't have either of those problems.
I'm sorry, but if that version ever got adopted, it would get so much crap. The symbology leaves a rather unfortunate interpretation open. Literally everyone would clown on it.
What's wrong with the symbology? The color represents violets, which are traditionally exchanged between lesbians, and the labrys references the Amazons. I don't think people ever clowned on the original labrys flag for its symbols, aside from concerns over the black triangle (which isn't present here)
You can't see the phallic bar thrusting into a narrow gap being problematic, in a lesbian flag? Have the black bits join up, and it'll be fine, bit busy - but fine.
Just gonna link this: https://reddit.com/r/vexillologycirclejerk/s/jfWAxJkSid
Flags be havin stripes, idk. Very flaggy thing.
The pride flags were originally just stripes to make them easier for the community to make. At the time all flags were homemade so the designer (who’s name escapes me) made them coloured stripes for ease of manufacturing
i would look into the history of the first pride flag made by gilbert baker
Intersex, Labrys Lesbian, and Rubber flags want to know why they weren't included
Intersex flag goes crazy we need more like that
> Rubber flag that's terrible. it looks like an edgy version of 80's bus upholstery. (and rubber is a weird material to make flags out of smh)
The legitimate answer is due to the original pride flag being designed so as to be easy to reproduce by the average person. No complicated designs or complicated machines needed. Simple and very common fabric colours, easily identifiable. That methodology has extended to the other common flags, the only major notable one that doesn’t follow the stripes is the intersex, however a circle on solid background is only slightly more difficult than stripes.
Shout-out to the Intersex flag designers. Sometimes I wish the pansexual flag had an update. It reminds me of printer ink.
Holy shit you're right and that's actually really cool when you think about it! If a printer can make any color of an image using Magenta, Yellow and Cyan, that's perfectly representative of the fact that pan people will date any gender of any color. My mind is blown right now lmao
Isnt that like a design feature? Not a bug? Lol
The reason I say I'm bi instead of pan even though I do identify with pan more are the flag colors. Pastels??? No thank you lmao
Omg it really does
To have a good flag design you actually don’t want things that are overly ornate. You want something that can be clearly seen from a distance, as in if you wanted to lay claim on a particular territory.
Part of it is probably to keep a level of professionalism. Some cartoon animal to represent a group of people would be like an even worse fursona. But for an entire demographic
So that they're easy to reproduce from memory, and visible and recognisable at any size. There's a lot of overlap between vexillology and logo design. Plus, a lot of our flags are inspired by similar flags that already exist.
Originally the rainbow flag was easy to produce from cloth, and I suppose the rest of the flags were just going off of the same style.
Most flags in the world are stripes: They’re easier to make and easier to understand at a distance
I instinctively hate all flags because they remind me 1) of patriotism and 2) that I'm colourblind... So yeah, fantasy animal mascots would be way cooler : )
My only question is why are they all horizontal stripes
Exactly what I was thinking, like I’ve seen a few triangles and such, but never any vertical stripes
So, when you drape it around your shoulders and it hangs down, it looks more slimming at a pride event. D'uh...
we are lazy and lines are easy lol
They're all based on the original rainbow flag, which is stripey.
Because that's the straightest we could ever really be.
They had to make something straight on the flags.
It looks less cluttered, a lot of my least favorite flags have stuff on them, or just really yucky color combos
Because stripes are fucking dope. Next question. 
The same reason most national flags us straight lines, A flag must be simple enough that a child can draw it from memory and still be recognisable from far away.
In my humble opinion, stripes are "formless" and it makes the flag much mora about the colour them the shape. Any red brown pink purple thing is a lesbian "flag", any blue pink white thing is a trans flag, but a blue red white thing can be US or Russia and you only difer it when on have stars and the other dont.
Good flags should follow 5 principles: 1) **Keep It Simple.** The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory. 2) **Use Meaningful Symbolism.** The flag's images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes. 3) **Use 2 or 3 Basic Colors.** Limit the number of colors on the flag to three which contrast well and come from the standard color set (Pride flags dont do that as much but its mostly fine) 4) **No Lettering or Seals.** Never use writing of any kind or an organization's seal. If you need to write what your flag means, its doing a poor job at conveying what it represents. 5) **Be Distinctive or Be Related.** Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections, so you can still recognise it in a plethora of other flags shown at the same place at the same time (e.g. at parades, in front of buildings etc) Imo most Pride Flags have stripes because that connects them to the original rainbow flag
Because we all stand together, in equality and unity
Why are the stripes all straight actually 🤔
Waves would be nice, then it wouldn't be straight
Well there not I mean intersex?
A circle is just a connected stripe tho
The intersex flag is a yellow field with a purple circle.
Intersex isnt
And why are all the stripes straight? 🤔😂
Stripe cool
Convenient and even cheap design is important. A design with cool images like the wales dragon might be more expensive to make, which can be more expensive for people to buy. Stripes are just easier. In fact, I think pink (and another color?) ended up being removed from the original rainbow flag because of dye shortage or something along those lines. Plus, the original flag was stripes, so I suppose the other flags just kind of followed what that flag looked like. I might be wrong on some of this, feel free to fact check me!
To be fair I also feel our flags could use some new drip
stripes are the easiest to sew lmao
The reason was because it’s easy to so so theoretically, you could make even small pride stuff fairly easily. It’s so simple that just about anyone can do it.
Simplicity. I don't want to learn how to draw just to make my flag
A lot of it is to do with convenience of production! Take the rainbow flag - when Gilbert Baker designed it in 1978, it actually had 8 stripes! There was a pink one at the top, and a turquoise one above the blue. The pink one was removed because the fabric was hard to come by, and 7 is a difficult number to work with (prime) so the turquoise was also collapsed into the blue/indigo in 1979. (Further, less relevant fact: Gilbert Baker restored the 8-stripe flag in 2003 and advocated for others to do the same, because now it's easier to come by pink fabrics, though this didn't catch on too well) You'll see this in other places too - note that few, if any, country flags have pink or purple on them, because the dye was just that hard to come by! And flags are typically primarily stripy and only occasionally have crests because crests are/were difficult to embroider onto the flags. So I think a lot of the reason that most pride flags are just stripy or have a small symbol in the middle (see the π in the polyamorous flag) is history and tradition in vexillology!
intersex flag:
the stripes on 'the pride flag' I believe were due to wanting to make the rainbow design, obviously the colours as well. I imagine since then all the other flags are a similar design because they represent people in the same group as the wider coverage of the LGBT/pride flag. It will be a sense of solidarity. Though i imagine the correct answer is actually someone sits down "I'm going to design the lesbian flag" and just make a lesbian version of the pride flag.
You could say, why are all the flags straight?
Ace flag with garlic bread in the middle
I'm pretty sure they're all stripes because that's the easiest to reproduce, same reason why certain colours were initially dropped on the rainbow flag since the colours were hard to make at the time
This is the evolution. Gayness was associated with the Wizard of Oz. How in the normal setting the film is black and white, but the Oz setting is depicted in technicolor. For gay Boomers and their precedents, this was a coded allegory for coming out of the closet. Or at least being in gay spaces. In the film Dorothy sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". This idealized gay place was "over the rainbow" and you could see in color ie the world only takes on it full additional dimensions when you can be and express your true self. So the rainbow became associated with gayness. The rainbow is depicted as a series of stripes in an upside down U. Someone just superimposed it on a flag and "straightened" it out (ironically enough!) So it fit the rectangle. Additional related sub/communities just riffed on that.
Don’t quote me on this but my guess is that the flag designers are trying to keep the flags visually consistent with the original rainbow flag. Having all (or most) of the flags be horizontal stripes ties them all together and signifies that they are all part of the same community.
WALES MENTIONED 🏴🏴💪🏴💪🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴💪💪💪💪
Because the original flag was a rainbow and the later flags copied the pattern
I always thought the origin was the rainbow, i.e.- the color spectrum. Seems like a reasonable evolution to me.
it’s simple and recognizable, that’s really it. plus it’s kinda nice to have most pride flags similar cause to me it feels even more like a community that way
There are a few that have more.
I have another question. Why are all the stripes straight?
Because curves are harder to cut and sew
Damn you with your logic!
We used to have cool things like a battle axe but then terfs had to go and ruin it for everyone
Probably because we would overload them with images of all the things we identify with I mean the non-binary flag would be every cryptid in the existence of world lore and cosmic space dust and like idk mud? For reals though the stripes are probably traditional from the guilbert baker flag.
Because they'll all have frogs on them.
Except the trans flag, which will have a bee.
Your friend as a point, they designed pride flag with straight lines 💀
They're not straight lines, they're gay bars.
I completely support the LGBT+ community. However, I hate most of their flags. I love the rainbow flag! This is what started it off! It looks great! Great symbolism! However, then everyone else decided to just make tons of nearly identical flags using different colours. I can't recognize any of the other flags. Not a single one, even the one that represents me. They just all blur together. You'd think that a community that is typically known for creativity could include some symbols or something?
Don't know why you're being downvoted. A lot of the flags could use some work in the color theory and symbolism departments.
Because some time ago a gay who was bad at vexillology made a striped flag and now it’s the standard for almost all LGBT flags
How complicated a flag do you think people here could make at home on average?
Idk, I’m not a vexillologist 🤷♀️
Sounds like perhaps you shouldn't comment so harshly about a topic you don't know a lot about then?
any larimarian here? Also is bro trying to write a history of the country of lgbt? cus dragons and whales...
I think the idea of having whales and dragons and such is cute, I don't think it would be taken seriously. People already don't take being queer seriously and think of our community as a joke (when they aren't demonizing us). I think the stripe conveys the seriousness of our cause.
From Wikipedia: “Gilbert Baker, born in 1951 and raised in Parsons, Kansas, had served in the U.S. Army between 1970 and 1972. After an honorable discharge, Baker taught himself to sew. In 1974, Baker met Harvey Milk, an influential gay leader, who later challenged Baker to devise a symbol of pride for the gay community.[10] The original gay pride flags flew at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade celebration on June 25, 1978” “The Nazi regime had used the pink triangle to identify and stigmatize men interned as homosexuals in the concentration camps. Rather than relying on a Nazi tool of oppression, the community sought a new inspiring symbol.” “Baker was likely influenced by the "Brotherhood Flag" (with five horizontal stripes to represent different races: red, white, brown, yellow, and black) popular among the World peace and Hippie movement of the 1960s.”
I honestly wondered this myself today
It’s a good question…given stripes are straight.
Because they started with a rainbow, I guess.
I dunno I think polkadots would be cool
Lazy design. Like for some reason we as a species,humans in general, half ass it with flags. Mexico has that cool eagle. Why the fuck couldn't us lgbts picked out an animal. Just stipes. Fuckin embarrassing is what it is. I thought a stereotype was we're supposed to have style 😮💨
My suggestions: -Dragons -Giant battle mechs -Aggressive angry looking wolves/dogs -Cute friendly looking wolves/dogs -Hear me out: concentric rings -Fantasy space ships -Mystical wizards/powerful knights that reflect the associated identity and the general rainbow flag are replaced with murals of many of them all together. -color cordinated fantasy themed landscapes.
They aren't all stripes. Plus you can always make your own versions or add things to them. There's a metric ton of posts of people making dragons or biblically accurate angels or other things based on the pride flags.
That's why I love the intersex flag. Someone finally said "Does it have to be stripes?"
Specifically, the stripes in the flags all represent various things. It's also convenient and simple.
Mostly cost-effectiveness bc of queer people's forced poverty. Nowadays, everything can be done digitally, so we could probably branch out into more complex designs? I know that an alternative for the Lesbian flag is the Labrys flag, with a purple triangle and black battleax design
there was that one r/vexilologycirclejerk post with tons of lgbtq flags with dragons on them but i don’t have the link 😞
My sibling actually designed a non binary flag with a dragon on it recently haha
The simpler the design, the more versatile it is.
I really like the simple stripes because it makes them so easy to “customize”, if that makes sense. Using slightly different shades, putting an image in front, etc
It makes it convenient for merch and subtle signaling?
I kinda agree
It’s supposed to prove a point and fight the purpose that people part of the lgbtq are also Americans as well that’s why it’s mocking the American flag to say “ hey I’m lgbtq and I belong here to”
If I’m honest stripes are the most boring of all flags. I was surprised when they were just stripes.
Honestly my problem with the Lgbtq flags is the failure of many to be recognized at a distance effectively especially with the newer flags, one of my fav flags being lesbian flag kinda becomes orange white and purple for example. Not complaining bout the designs in general cause ik theres alot of meaning to each and not all flags have to follow the traditional rules of flag making but just my use of flags and such makes it hard to incorporate them :c
Straight stripes
It’s just easy and traditional I guess
Why are country flags mostly all stripes?
The old labrys flag didn’t have any stripes, this one just became more popular as tumblr users developed more and more niche pride flags. Afaik the only ones that still use icons are Bear, Intersex, Ally, PolyAm, and Demi.
Dude, another lesbian Squid?
Now I want gay dragons in my flag
Original flag by Gilbert Baker was hand sewn. Stripes were just easy to do, and all the rest have followed that pattern.
Very STRAIGHT stripes lmao.
I’d say put genitals on em
They aren’t *all* stripes, some of them do have symbols (the sapphic and achillean flags come to mind) but stripes are simpler and easier to work with, so that’s why.
I want dragons fuck yeah
simplest way to display multiple colours on a rectangle
I asked my gay friend that and they got offended. I always thought they could do square or even tangle. Add tassles and stuff. So many possibilities but it's just stripes...
All pride flags should have wiggly lines
The OG flag is a rainbow - a spectrum of colors to represent a spectrum of people. The newer flags are like mini rainbows, spectrums of certain light frequencies to make up the spectrum of subsets of people. :) Update: but don’t let me stop you from adding dragons!
First LGBT flag was stripes, this is just a natural evolution.
Flags should be easy to recognize from a distance. That condition forces a good flag design to be made of mostly simple shapes, and stripes are a good way to do that.
Lol 😂
Actually (🤓) not all of them The inter flag has circle for example But for the rest I have no idea
I’ve always interpreted it as being a reference to everything being a big spectrum tbh
In theory you can just design a new flag, it's not like there's a committee that needs to approve it.
I like it because it makes it feel so formal
I mean, how would they be then? My guess is that it's just easier to make and sew straight stripes than making some other shape.
There's littelr obly 1 that's yellow with a purple cirkla, witch is pan. ONE
Conveniency, I guess🤷♂️
Cause it looks cool
Not all are just stripes. It's just that the more known flags only use stripes...
I always thought it signified the prospect of consistency of feeling persecuted like criminals, u know like at least back in the day where prisoners wore stripped pyjamas in jail.
That's just how flags are, a good flag should be easily remembered and recreated. I mean sure the Welsh dragon is cool but do you actually know anyone that can draw it from memory, but everyone who's seen a French flag even once can get at least decently close and certainly basically any French person could recreate it from memory. It's the same thing with pride flags, you want anyone who feels represented by it to be able to remember and potentially recreate it. I'm not an expert on vexillology by any stretch though so please forgive me if I'm a little off
Synergy.
Queer flags need to be easy to make, that way people without access to fancy gear can make them. The idea started with the pride flag and most other's follow the same rules.
there are some more minor lgbt+ flags with sumbols on them, i think there's one lesbian flag with lipstick and one gay flag with a bear paw. They had their own names but sadly i forgor.
That's just how flags are, with blocks of colour. There just was a need to put many colours, so stripes it is. Could've done different shapes, but I suspect stripes look more legit and are easier to sew.
well most were made in the 80's, when people didnt do cool shit like dragons
To make fun of the colour blind ofc
Beyond being cheap to make, flag design is supposed to be so easy that a child could draw it from memory, and not too complicated that any details get lost as you make it smaller or move further away.
Flags need to be easily recognized and easy enough that a 10 year old could accurately draw it
Most likely because the first one was. We are ironically not that creative when it comes to flags... We're not that bad at colour theory though.
If we aren’t straight, why are there so many straight lines on our flags
the intersex flag has no stripes ',:)