Gay Men's Pride Flag (Seven-Stripe)

Overview

To provide a flag specifically for gay men that acknowledged the spectrum of masculine experience rather than relying solely on the general rainbow flag.

The question of whether gay men needed their own flag, distinct from the rainbow flag that had served as the universal symbol of LGBTQ+ pride since 1978, was a live debate throughout the 2010s. Lesbian communities had developed an increasingly specific visual vocabulary (the lipstick lesbian flag, various community-designed alternatives), but gay men continued to rely on the rainbow as a general-purpose symbol. By the mid-2010s, Tumblr pride-flag design culture had made identity-specific flags a norm rather than an exception, and the absence of a dedicated gay men's flag became more conspicuous.

Mod Hermy published the seven-stripe gay men flag through the Pride-Flags / ask-pride-color-schemes Tumblr blog on June 26, 2017, in response to an anonymous request. The original submission asked for blues and purples, but Hermy steered away from that palette because it overlapped too closely with Dorian Rutherford's 2016 butch lesbian flag, which already occupied the blue-to-purple range. The resulting teal-to-blue gradient was a practical compromise that became the flag's most recognizable feature, evoking masculinity without reducing it to the single-shade blue that conventional gender coding would suggest. The gradient communicates a spectrum of masculine experience from community and independence through love, serenity, and gender nonconformity. ^[1][2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

gay men

Subcommunity

men loving men (MLM)

Creators

The Creator

Origin

Digital Origin

Tumblr (Pride-Flags / ask-pride-color-schemes)

Digital origin; no verified physical location.

Published online through the Pride-Flags Tumblr blog. ^[1] No offline launch event documented.

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2017

Exact date

June 26, 2017

First public use

June 26, 2017

Period in Use

2017–present

The flag circulated through Tumblr and later appeared in pride-flag reference sites. Its adoption was complicated by a provenance dispute: a transmedicalist blog called discourse-king reposted the design without attribution, gaining approximately 8,200 notes compared to the original post's 9, a disparity that effectively replaced the flag's actual origin story in popular memory. This created a false association between the flag and exclusionary ideology that persisted for years. ^[3] Despite this, the design served as the primary precursor to the 2019 gayflagblog five-stripe redesign, which achieved wider mainstream adoption while maintaining the teal-to-blue color language. ^[4][2]

The design is explicitly described in source material as an adaptation of the lesbian flag structure with colors shifted into teal and blue ranges. ^[1] In 2021, Mod Hermy returned from hiatus to address discourse surrounding the flag, noting that a transmedicalist blog (discourse-king) had reposted it in a way that made it appear to be their own creation, gaining significantly more circulation than the original post. ^[3] Mod Hermy subsequently collaborated with gay men to retroactively assign updated stripe meanings that explicitly include gender-nonconforming, non-binary, trans, ace/arospec, and pronoun-nonconforming gay men. ^[3] The flag's co-option by exclusionary communities, and the original creator's rejection of that co-option, is a significant element of its discourse history. ^{[3] [5]} The seven-stripe version preceded the more widely adopted five-stripe version by gayflagblog (2019). Both emerged from a broader community effort to create a specifically gay male pride flag distinct from the rainbow flag, which by the 2010s was increasingly associated with the LGBTQ+ community as a whole rather than with gay men specifically. ^[6]

Lineage

Indirect influences

Pink Lesbian Flag, Rainbow Pride Flag

Direct children

Gay Men's Pride Flag (Five-Stripe)

Related flags

Achillean Blue Rose Flag (CatColors, 2020), Achillean Flag, Achillean Pride Flag (2016 Redesign), Otter Pride Flag

The seven-stripe design is the direct precursor to the 2019 gayflagblog five-stripe gay men flag. ^{[4] [2]} Its stripe structure was adapted from the lesbian pride flag tradition, shifting the palette into teal and blue tones. ^[1] Part of the broader post-rainbow striped pride-flag tradition.

Lineage tree

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

This record

Gay Men's Pride Flag (Seven-Stripe)

Children

Gay Men's Pride Flag (Five-Stripe)

Colors & Symbolism

The flag uses seven stripes in teal-to-blue tones with a pale center stripe, adapting the structural approach of lesbian pride flags for a gay men context.

Circulating community values from reference sites

This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.

The flag originally had no formally stated stripe meanings. The meanings listed above are from reference site documentation. ^[1][4] In 2021, Mod Hermy collaborated with gay men in a pride Discord server to assign updated inclusive meanings: Community, Inclusion, She/her and pronoun-nonconforming gays, GNC/nonbinary/trans men, Ace/arospec and split-attraction gays, Love and attraction, and Diversity. ^[3]

No official creator-published hex specification. The values given are drawn from widely circulating community reference sites.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

7

Layout

horizontal_stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Dark Teal, Teal, Light Teal, White, Light Blue, Blue, Dark Blue

Seven equal horizontal stripes: dark teal, teal, light teal, white, light blue, blue, and dark blue, from top to bottom. No emblem or additional symbols.

Usage & Adoption

Geographic Usage

Internet circulation

Online Usage

Circulated through Tumblr and pride-flag reference sites

Current Status

historical

Historically important as the earlier widely discussed modern gay-men-specific striped flag, but largely superseded by the 2019 five-stripe redesign in common usage. ^{[4] [2]}

Discourse & Debates

• Whether the flag can be 'reclaimed' from its association with exclusionary communities, given that the original creator explicitly rejected that framing, the debate mirrors broader questions about whether a symbol's meaning is set by its creator or by its most visible users ^[3][5]
• Whether the seven-stripe version should be treated as historical and superseded by the 2019 five-stripe redesign, or as a valid alternative that continues to hold meaning for users who prefer it ^[4][2]

Common misidentifications

• Frequently conflated with the 2019 five-stripe redesign, which is a distinct flag by a different creator (gayflagblog) with revised color meanings
• The unattributed discourse-king repost led many users to incorrectly believe the flag was created by or for exclusionary communities ^[3]

Common confusions

• Sometimes confused with or treated as interchangeable with the later 2019 five-stripe version, which is a distinct redesign
• The colloquial nickname 'listerine flag,' a reference to the teal-blue color palette resembling the mouthwash brand, is widely used in online discourse but is not endorsed by the creator and is considered dismissive by some community members ^[5]

Criticisms

• The flag's most significant controversy is not about its design but about its co-option. A transmedicalist Tumblr blog called discourse-king reposted the seven-stripe design without attribution, gaining substantially more circulation than the original Pride-Flags post. Because discourse-king promoted exclusionary views, arguing that nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people were not 'really' part of the gay community, the flag became falsely associated with transmedicalism in online discourse. In 2021, Mod Hermy returned from a hiatus to explicitly reject this framing, retroactively updating the stripe meanings in collaboration with gay men to ensure the flag's language unambiguously included trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, ace/arospec, and pronoun-nonconforming gay men. The incident illustrates a broader pattern in online flag culture: designs can be detached from their original intent through reposting without attribution, and the resulting false associations are difficult to correct once established. ^[3][5]
• Some gay men questioned whether a separate flag was necessary at all, arguing that the rainbow flag already represented them and that creating identity-specific sub-flags fragmented rather than unified the LGBTQ+ movement. Proponents responded that the rainbow had increasingly been read as a general-purpose LGBTQ+ symbol rather than a specifically gay one, and that lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities had long had their own flags without anyone suggesting this weakened solidarity. ^[2]

The flag is sometimes colloquially called the 'listerine flag' in online discourse, a reference to its teal-blue color palette. This informal label is not endorsed by the creator. The broader identity term 'MLM' (men loving men) encompasses gay, bisexual, pansexual, and other men who experience attraction to men, while this flag was designed specifically for gay men. The term 'achillean,' derived from the mythological relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, emerged as an alternative umbrella term that some prefer over 'MLM.' ^[2][5]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

seven-stripe original

• The seven-stripe gay men's flag as circulated online, originally published by Mod Hermy through the Pride-Flags / ask-pride-color-schemes Tumblr blog on June 26, 2017. The teal-to-blue gradient was a deliberate departure from conventional single-shade blue gender coding. A transmedicalist blog later reposted the design without attribution, gaining substantially more circulation than the original post and creating a false association with exclusionary ideology. ^[1][3] · Credit: Mod Hermy / Pride-Flags · Tumblr (Pride-Flags / ask-pride-color-schemes)