before you continue into this rentry further, please note that i am not prioritizing flag discourse over actual real life issues in our community. i don't want this discourse to be more important than lgbtq+ peoples' lives being lost. i just want to clear up as much misinformation as i can so we can all work together. i also don't want my words to be twisted into me being homophobic. this is not my intention i am only a lesbian trying to bring up an issue that keeps being ignored time and time again. thank you.

i am open to any suggestions in dms about what to add to this/how the phrasing in this should be corrected as long as it's respectful. dm me @nonbinarykazuha on twt

aside from that, what exactly am i going to be talking about?
first off, i'll be discussing the history of both the lesbian flag and the vincian flag and clearing up any misconceptions, along with putting forth some issues with the vincian flag. then, i'll input my own opinion on if the vincian flag should be commonly used and provide some flag alternatives.

if you're going to get on me for talking on this as a lesbian, please realize that the issue i am mostly pointing out is how this flag's history is lesbiphobic and the layout is a blatant copy. if you ignore me for this... ok ig lol??

let's talk about the originally proposed gay flag

on the tumblr blog of pride-color-schemes in june 2016, a post was made.

a screenshot from pride-color-schemes on tumblr in light mode, reading "some proposed flags to represent specifically gay men since the rainbow flag represents all gay people and there are like 6 lesbian flags. designed by: anonymous and mod hermy (anonymous wanted blues and purples, but it looked too much like the butch lesbian flag so hermy suggested using blues and greens instead).
one of the moderators, mod hermy, had made a gay flag proposal. this was originally suggested by an anonymous asker. it's unclear if the first line is the anon's opinion or the moderator's opinion, but the reason for the creation of the flag is because of how the rainbow flag has been claimed by the entire community, and 'because there are like six lesbian flags'.
this is an odd thing to say; especially as the part in brackets at the bottom even confesses that it looked like the butch lesbian flag, before it was changed to blues and greens. this feels like a backhanded comment about lesbians, as there was no reason to cite that lesbians had multiple flags, especially since it wasn't even relevant to the flag proposal in the first place.

here is a post by archivalflags on tumblr that goes into more detail about this flag's creation: https://archivalflags.tumblr.com/post/619083546572849152/image-transcription-a-flag-with-seven

the problems with this flag

let's get this out of the way.
this flag is a very blatant recolor of the lesbian flag. it may not be a direct hueshift as many people say it is- but you can see through and through that it has the exact same layout as the pink lesbian flag and the sunset lesbian flag- a white stripe in the middle bordered by three stripes on either end, which are different hues.
why is this a problem?
flags more often than not represent that community's struggles, history, and most importantly, pride. by taking the exact same layout as the lesbian flag, which was made specifically to represent lesbians, then that's just erasing gay people's and lesbian's very unique history. by making it the exact same layout, you're choosing to ignore that the lesbian flag is for lesbians, and making the gay flag and lesbian flag "match" for no particular reason. lesbians and gays' history are not comparable.
this is also not comparable to how other flags also have "the same layout". you can't compare the bisexual flag and pansexual flag to the lesbian flag and this proposed gay flag. with this image, you can obviously see the differences. the bisexual flag's middle stripe is thinner, while the pansexual flag has the same width for all three stripes.
the bisexual flag. a pinkish stripe on the top, a thinner purple stripe in the middle, and a blue stripe the same width as the top stripe on the bottom. it is next to the pansexual flag, with a pink top stripe, a yellow middle stripe, and a cyan bottom stripe.

people are also uncomfortable with how the gay flag being blue and green pushes the idea that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. this is a very exclusionary and outdated stereotype, and also implies that nonbinary people are not welcome in this identity.

the flag also has no meaning to it's stripes, aside from the fact that it's "like the lipstick lesbian flag". this is a discomfort to many in the gay community, as a meaningless flag isn't very representative of their community.

the origin of this original flag is very controversial as well, as the creator themselves is a very vocal supporter of bi/pan lesbians (which i won't get into right now, but if you don't know about this discourse, just know that this is a very lesbiphobic and biphobic/panphobic label) and seems to be a radical inclusionist. this means that they support every single mogai identity- even if they're harmful.
however, the radinclus observation is just as i said- only an observation. i don't know if i have the time to look through all of their posts to confirm this, so this will be left vague. it's also not very relevant at the moment. i'm only bringing up these things because it shows how unfavorable this flag's origin is.

the remade gay flag proposal

the anonymous tumblr blog gayflagblog identified that people in the community were uncomfortable with this newer proposed flag, for the above reasons i listed. because of this, they decided to make a new proposal as a trans gay disabled guy, and this flag was born.

the vincian flag. it has a darker green stripe at the top, followed by two lighter green stripes. in the middle is a single white stripe, which is followed by blue stripes that go from lighter to darker as the flag goes down.

the tumblr user has many meanings for this flag, to help alleviate the problem of the original flags' lack of meaning. this can be found at this link, and i personally approve of the research op has done for their community and lengths they go through to make sure everyone in the community is represented. there are also more simplified flags and other versions of this flag around, but op has stated they all have the same meaning and symbolism as the original one.

what's the problem, then?

however, despite all of this flags' attempts to fix it's predecessor's mistakes, the issue is that it still has the same layout as the lesbian flag, and association with the previous flag. this may not be such a big deal to some people, and i think that's fine if you still choose to use this flag, but i believe that op could've tried to separate this flag from the first a bit more.
this is a very touchy subject for many lesbians who feel this flag is still too similar to their own, and i'd have to agree completely. lesbians have faced time and time again people trying to erase our identity, and it feels in poor taste to have this flag resemble ours completely.

are there other alternatives i can use?

yes!
below, i'll be linking some flags i've found myself. these may not be for gay people entirely and may include mspec identities, but there will be a good amount of flags just for the gay community.

the cinthean flag! this flag was proposed by twitter user @bimbjus and it has it's own carrd where you can find the meanings and symbolism here: https://cintheanz.carrd.co/ .

the gilbert baker rainbow flag!

the candy gay flag i don't think this is the official name but i think it's a very sweet name :) the original poster whose @ has a slur i'm not comfortable writing's account is not on twitter anymore i believe, but i do have these images
the candy gay flag
the candy gay flag 2

the draconian flag + an unnamed mlm/nblm flag please note that this flag includes mspec identities! this is proposed by twitter user @mlmnblmpos, but unfortunately it seems this account has been taken down. i don't really remember the meanings.....sorry

the draconian flag

afternotes

thank you for reading this, and if you read through this entire thing and decided you weren't going to change that i literally will not care, just acknowledge that flag you're usings' faults. if you're going to argue with me on twitter be sure to send me death threats on my curiouscat as well! <3 https://curiouscat.qa/nonbinarykazuha

Edit Report
Pub: 25 Nov 2021 21:57 UTC
Edit: 25 Nov 2021 22:57 UTC
Views: 1326