Demigenderqueer Pride Flag (2015, designer unknown)

Overview

The flag belongs to a run of demigender designs the pride-color-schemes archive documented in batches, opening its post with "Since there's so so so many demigender designs, I'm going to break them up into multiple posts." It defines demigender as "an umbrella term for nonbinary gender identities that have a partial connection to a certain gender", of which demigirl and demiboy are the familiar cases, and adds that "The 'other part' may or may not be known". Demigenderqueer names the case where that other part is genderqueer. ^[2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

demigenderqueer

Subcommunity

demigender; genderqueer

Language Context

Demi- is French for half, used across the demigender labels for a partial connection to a gender.

Circulated in online Tumblr and DeviantArt communities.

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

The archive that documents the flag names nobody. Its post of 28 July 2016 records "Term coined by: Unknown" and "Designed by: Unknown", and its FAQ states the convention that makes those lines meaningful: "Anything made by us will be clearly marked in the post description." This one is not. ^[2][3]

The LGBTQIA+ Wiki states that the first demiqueer flag was created by pride-color-schemes on 28 July 2016, citing that same post. ^[4] The post declines the credit, and the DeviantArt file it links for the full-size copy had been online since 23 August 2015. ^[1][2]

A second, different demigenderqueer design was uploaded to the same DeviantArt gallery on 9 January 2017. Its file page carries the same definitions and no designer credit, and no source connects it to whoever made the 2015 flag. ^[5]

Origin

Place Type

online

Digital Origin

Yes

Digital origin only. No geographic location is associated with this flag's creation.

Published to the Pride-Flags DeviantArt gallery at 23:16 Pacific on 22 August 2015, which is 23 August in UTC and the date the site displays. The pride-color-schemes Tumblr write-up followed on 28 July 2016. ^[1][2]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2015

First documented publication

August 23, 2015

Period in Use

2015–present

Documented circulation is online: the Pride-Flags DeviantArt gallery, the pride-color-schemes Tumblr post, and community reference wikis, several of which file the design under the name demiqueer. ^[4][1][2]

A second demigenderqueer design was uploaded to the same gallery on 9 January 2017. It keeps the grey, light grey and white frame but divides its centre band into three equal vertical panels, lavender, white and green, instead of three horizontal ones. No designer is credited for it and no source calls it a revision of the 2015 flag, so it is recorded here as a separate design. ^[5]

The LGBTQIA+ Wiki records two later simplified versions under the name demiqueer, by imoga-pride on 30 January 2019 and by the-gender-collector-emself on 5 March 2020. ^[4]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Genderqueer Pride Flag

Related flags

Demisexual Pride Flag

Sibling flags

Chicago Genderqueer Pride

The centre band is the Genderqueer Pride Flag reproduced at a seventh of the height: lavender #B57EDC over white over green, in that order and those proportions. The green reads #4A8124, one step from the value this archive records for the Genderqueer flag in its own entry. The quotation is visible in the designer's file, and it is the design relationship this flag carries; the grey and white frame follows the demigender pattern used across the same series of designs, without quoting a particular flag. ^[1][2]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.

Ancestor

Genderqueer Pride Flag

This record

Demigenderqueer Pride Flag (2015, designer unknown)

Colors & Symbolism

No meanings were published. The archive's post carries definitions of demigender and genderqueer and no colour key at all. ^[2]

Nothing in the located sources assigns a meaning to the grey, the light grey or the white. The centre band is the Genderqueer Pride Flag in miniature; the symbolism its designer published for those three colours belongs to that flag and is documented in its own entry. Readings that attach demigender meanings to the greys here are inference, not published symbolism. ^[2]

No palette was published, so these are sampled values, taken from the 5000 by 3000 file the archive links for the full-size copy. The 2017 design uses the same five values. ^[5][1]

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

9

Layout

horizontal_stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Grey, Light Grey, White, Lavender, White, Green, White, Light Grey, Grey

Structure: 7 equal parent bands; the centre band is divided into 3, producing 9 visible regions. Measured on the 5000 by 3000 original, each parent band is a seventh of the height, about 429 pixels, and the centre one is split into three thirds of about 143 pixels each carrying lavender, white and green. The nine regions are not equal and the flag is not seven plain stripes. ^[1]

Seven horizontal bands of equal depth: grey, light grey, white, the genderqueer band, white, light grey, grey. The genderqueer band is subdivided into three equal horizontal thirds, lavender over white over green. No emblem or overlay. No aspect ratio was published with the design; the file is 5000 by 3000 pixels, which is the archive's standard canvas rather than a specification for this flag. ^[1]

Nine visible horizontal regions on a grid of seven equal bands: grey #7F7F7F, light grey #C3C3C3, white #FFFFFF, then the centre band divided into lavender #B57EDC, white and green #4A8124, then white, light grey and grey. ^[1]

Usage & Adoption

Online Usage

Pride-Flags DeviantArt gallery and pride-color-schemes Tumblr. ^[1][2], LGBTQIA+ community wikis, filed under demiqueer. ^[4]

Current Status

Documented variant; circulation documented online

Documented in online reference material. No photographed physical use has been located.

Image Archive

The two demigenderqueer designs

Discourse & Debates

• Several designs circulate for this identity, including a second one from January 2017 and two later simplified versions recorded under the name demiqueer. None has been documented as the settled version. ^[4][5]

Common misidentifications

• Filed as seven plain stripes. The centre band is subdivided, so the flag shows nine colour regions on a seven-band grid. ^[1]
• Described with a lavender, white, lavender centre. That describes a different design; this one carries the Genderqueer flag's lavender, white and green. ^[1][2]
• Credited to pride-color-schemes, which documented and hosted the flag and records the designer as unknown. ^[4][2]
• Read as related to Demisexual because both labels use demi-. The prefix is shared; no design relationship is documented.

Criticisms

• The label was taken up as material for mockery. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki records that "In 2015, a transphobic meme emerged stringing together multiple non-binary genders, xenogenders, and kingenders, often including demiqueer, to mock the MOGAI community on Tumblr", and that exclusionists have used the term derogatorily since. ^[4]

The primary sources file this design as demigenderqueer, a demigender identity partly connected to a given gender and partly genderqueer. ^[1][2] It also circulates as demiqueer, which the LGBTQIA+ Wiki treats as a partial or incomplete connection to Queerness or Queer gender identity and attributes to the Tumblr user feylavie-blog on 19 November 2014. ^[4] That coinage claim belongs to the word demiqueer; no located source attaches it to this design or to the word demigenderqueer, whose coiner the archive records as unknown. ^[2]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

First design (2015)

• The 2015 demigenderqueer design, on DeviantArt from 23 August 2015 and documented by the pride-color-schemes archive on 28 July 2016 with its designer recorded as unknown. Archive rendering, with the band depths and the five colours measured on the original 5000 by 3000 file. · Credit: Designer unknown. Source file published by Pride-Flags on DeviantArt. Rendering: Encycloflaggia, measured from the original file. · DeviantArt (Pride-Flags) · reconstructionRights The designer is unknown and no rights statement from them has been located. The DeviantArt licence field on the source file reads none.
• The second demigenderqueer design, uploaded to the same DeviantArt gallery on 9 January 2017. Its centre band is divided into three vertical panels rather than three horizontal ones. No designer is credited and no source calls it a revision of the 2015 flag. Archive rendering, measured on the original 5000 by 3000 file. · Credit: Designer not named by the source. Source file published by Pride-Flags on DeviantArt. Rendering: Encycloflaggia, measured from the original file. · DeviantArt (Pride-Flags) · reconstructionRights No designer is named and no licence has been located. The DeviantArt licence field on the source file reads none.