Apothisexual Pride Flag (2016, pride-color-schemes)
Identity Pride Flag ·
A seven-stripe pride flag for apothisexual identity, designed and posted by the Tumblr blog pride-color-schemes on June 26, 2016. The original post explicitly states 'Color meanings: Unknown,' so the per-stripe meanings circulated in secondary sources are not creator-published and should not be presented as official. [1] The same June 26 post also documents a separate earlier five-stripe apothisexual flag with a black 'X' overlay, designed by an anonymous Tumblr user; the seven-stripe pride-color-schemes design is the version reproduced as canonical in most secondary databases. [1] The term apothi was first published a year earlier on the Tumblr blog mogai-lexicon (April 23, 2015), with coinage credited to autisutehk. [2]
Key facts
- Designer
- pride-color-schemes (Tumblr blog)
- Created
- First documented public use
- In use
- 2016–present
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Stripes
- 7
- Represented Identity
- apothisexual
Also known as
- Apothi Flag
- Apothi-ace Flag
- Sex-repulsed Asexual Flag
- apothisexual
- apothi
- apothi-ace
- sex-repulsed asexual
Status Canonical
Archive categories Sexuality Pride Flags
Overview
To distinguish sex-repulsed asexual experience from asexuality as a whole. The distinction matters within the community because asexual people vary widely in their relationship to sex, ranging from sex-favorable to sex-indifferent to sex-repulsed, and the broader asexual flag does not encode this variation. [1]
The apothisexual flag emerged during the mid-2010s expansion of asexual-spectrum vocabulary, which produced a cluster of distinct sub-labels (cupiosexual, aegosexual, lithromantic, fraysexual, apothisexual, and others) intended to mark experiences that the broader asexual flag was felt to flatten. The mogai-lexicon Tumblr blog and later pride-color-schemes Tumblr blog were two of the most active venues for that vocabulary work. [1][2]
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- apothisexual
- Subcommunity
- asexual spectrum (sex-repulsed)
Creators
The Creators
pride-color-schemes
Designer (blog credit)
pride-color-schemes is a Tumblr blog that has published a substantial number of identity pride flags during the mid-2010s MOGAI vocabulary expansion. Individual contributors behind the blog are not identified in the located sources.
Motivations
- To provide a visual symbol distinguishing apothisexual identity (sex-repulsed asexuality) from asexuality more broadly. [1]
autisutehk
Term coiner (apothi)
autisutehk is credited in secondary sources as the coiner of the term apothi, which was published on the Tumblr blog mogai-lexicon on April 23, 2015. [2] No further verified biographical information is available.
Attribution notes
The seven-stripe apothisexual flag now treated as canonical was designed and posted by the Tumblr blog pride-color-schemes on June 26, 2016. The original post is signed 'Designed by: Me,' attributing the seven-stripe design to pride-color-schemes itself. [1] The same post documents a separate earlier five-stripe apothisexual flag with a large black 'X' overlaid on the design, signed 'Designed by: Anonymous'; that earlier variant is part of the same archival moment but is not the canonical version. [1] The mogai-library entry for apothisexuality, by contrast, credits the apothisexual pride flag image as 'Pride flag credit: anonymous,' which most likely refers to the X-overlay version rather than the seven-stripe pride-color-schemes design. [2] The term apothi itself predates the flag and was published by the Tumblr blog mogai-lexicon on April 23, 2015, with coinage credit to autisutehk. [2] The flag designer (pride-color-schemes) and the term coiner (autisutehk) are distinct.
Origin
- Digital Origin
- true
No verified physical origin location. Without a confirmed location, Indigenous land context cannot be attributed.
The flag and the term both originated on Tumblr in the MOGAI vocabulary community of 2015 and 2016. [1][2]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- Exact date
- First public use
- Period in Use
- 2016–present
The 2016 pride-color-schemes design is the version reproduced in most a-spec pride flag guides. Its use is smaller than the most widely circulated a-spec micro-label flags but stable. [1][3]
The term was coined in April 2015 (mogai-lexicon, autisutehk) and the flag was designed over a year later, in June 2016 (pride-color-schemes). a-spec micro-labels did not always arrive at a flag immediately; vocabulary work and visual work were often handled by different blogs. [1][2]
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Asexual Pride Flag
Apothisexual is a sub-label of the asexual umbrella, sitting alongside graysexual, demisexual, fraysexual, cupiosexual, and aegosexual as a more specific articulation of one part of asexual experience. The flag does not directly recolor the asexual flag in the way the graysexual flag does, but it shares the asexual palette's purple, white, and black. [1]
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.
- Ancestor
- Asexual Pride Flag
- This record
- Apothisexual Pride Flag (2016, pride-color-schemes)
Colors & Symbolism
The flag visually marks apothisexual identity, the experience of sex-repulsed asexuality. The original pride-color-schemes June 26, 2016 post explicitly states 'Color meanings: Unknown.' [1] The mogai-library entry for apothisexuality similarly states 'no colour meanings were given,' and the meanings reproduced in secondary databases are explicitly identified as the mogai-library admin's own speculation rather than canonical readings (purple = asexuality, white = sexuality, black = repulsion, red = romance, with a note that the same prefix is also used for apothiromanticism). [2]
| Colour | Hex | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purple | #812F8B | — | Community-standard approximation. No official hex confirmed. |
| Black | #000000 | — | Standard black. |
| White | #FFFFFF | — | Standard white. |
| Dark red | #8B0000 | — | Community-standard approximation. No official hex confirmed. |
This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.
Per-stripe color meanings were not assigned by the creator. The pride-color-schemes 2016 post says 'Color meanings: Unknown,' and the mogai-library entry says 'no colour meanings were given' and explicitly labels its admin's purple/white/black/red reading as speculation, not canon. [1][2] The entry therefore does not list per-stripe meanings. The single most defensible meaning claim is that the flag identifies apothisexual identity as a whole.
No official hex values have been located. Values listed are community-standard approximations and should be verified against the original pride-color-schemes 2016 post or a reliable reproduction before publication.
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Orientation
- horizontal
- Stripe Count
- 7
- Layout
- horizontal_stripes
- Stripes (Top → Bottom)
- Purple, Black, White, Black, White, Black, Dark red
Seven horizontal stripes. The original pride-color-schemes June 26, 2016 post specifies that the outer two stripes (top purple, bottom dark red) are twice as wide as the five inner stripes. This unequal stripe-width is part of the flag's documented design and should not be flattened to seven equal stripes in any reproduction. [1]
Seven horizontal stripes. Outer two stripes (top purple, bottom dark red) are twice as wide as the five inner stripes, per the pride-color-schemes 2016 post. [1] No official aspect ratio has been located.
A seven-stripe horizontal pride flag for apothisexual identity. From top to bottom the stripes are purple, black, white, black, white, black, and dark red, with the outer purple and dark red stripes drawn at twice the width of the five inner stripes. [1] The design shares the asexual flag's purple, white, and black palette and adds a dark red bottom stripe.
Usage & Adoption
- Online Usage
- Reproduced in a-spec pride flag guides and on the LGBTQIA+ Wiki, MOGAI Wiki, and Pride Flag Wiki. [1][3][4]
- Current Status
- active
Smaller circulation than the most widely used a-spec micro-label flags, but stable. [1][3]
Discourse & Debates
- Whether sex-repulsion deserves a distinct identity label and flag, or whether it should be treated as a feature of individual asexual experience rather than a sub-orientation. The flag's existence is one side of that ongoing discussion.
- Whether the community-assigned stripe readings (purple = asexuality, white = sexuality, black = repulsion, red = romance) should be treated as canonical despite the absence of a creator-published statement.
Common confusions
- Sometimes confused with the asexual pride flag because of the shared purple, black, and white palette. Apothisexual adds a seventh dark red stripe and a different stripe count.
- The term apothi is sometimes confused with apothi-aroace, which is a separate combined identity with its own flag.
Apothi is a prefix used across both apothisexual and apothiromantic, and the apothi-aroace combination has its own flag. The prefix is consistent across these labels. [1][2]
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 4 sources
- 1. Apothisexual. pride-color-schemes. pride-color-schemes (Tumblr) (2016-06-26). Accessed 2026-04-07
- 2. Apothisexuality. mogai-library / mogai-lexicon. mogai-library (Tumblr) (2015-04-23). Accessed 2026-04-07
- 3. Apothi (orientation). LGBTQIA+ Wiki. Accessed 2026-04-07
- 4. Apothisexual. MOGAI Wiki (Miraheze). Accessed 2026-04-07
Image Sources
- Rendering
- seven-stripe pride-color-schemes (2016)