Grayromantic Pride Flag (2014)
Identity Pride Flag ·
A pride flag for grayromantic identity, designed by Tumblr user lesbiandoe and posted on September 22, 2014, in a post titled "NEW AROMANTIC AND GRAY-AROMANTIC FLAGS." [1] The design recolors the five-stripe graysexual flag, replacing its purple with the aromantic green: in lesbiandoe's words, "Green is the symbolic color of aromanticisim [sic] as purple is with asexuality, and I feel as if the two communities should have corresponding flags." [1] A blog rename clouded the attribution: the original post survives in a same-day reblog whose URL preserves the blog's earlier handle, lesbiangamora, while the blog itself is now titled Lesbian Deer Forever under the handle lesbiandoe. [1] The same post proposed a companion black, gray, white, and green aromantic flag that did not displace the standard aromantic design. Several later alternate grayromantic flags exist (Apollo and Angel, both 2020; Nyoomster, 2021), but the 2014 design remains the most widely circulated. [2]
Key facts
- Designer
- lesbiandoe (Sundrop)
- Created
- First documented public use
- In use
- 2014–present
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Stripes
- 5
- Represented Identity
- grayromantic
Also known as
- Greyromantic Pride Flag
- Gray-romantic Pride Flag
- Grey-aromantic Pride Flag
- Gray Aromantic Pride Flag
Status Canonical
Archive categories Sexual & Romantic Orientation Pride Flags
Overview
In lesbiandoe's words, so that the aromantic and asexual communities "should have corresponding flags," with green standing in for purple, and because designs similar to the well-known asexual and graysexual flags "would be easier to spread." [1]
The flag was created during a period of rapid 2014 expansion of aromantic-spectrum vocabulary on Tumblr, alongside the coinage and circulation of related terms such as lithromantic, akoiromantic, frayromantic, and quoiromantic. lesbiandoe's September 22, 2014 post proposed two flags at once: a black, gray, white, and green aromantic flag recoloring the asexual flag, and the gray-aromantic flag recoloring the graysexual flag, each presented beside its purple reference design. [1] The grayromantic flag closes a symmetry gap the aro-spectrum community had inherited from the ace-spectrum community, where graysexual already had a canonical flag (Rusignuolo, 2013). [2][3]
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- grayromantic
- Subcommunity
- aromantic spectrum
Creators
The Creators
lesbiandoe (Sundrop)
Designer
lesbiandoe is the Tumblr handle of the flag's designer, who signs as Sundrop and describes cerself in the blog's own words as "a nonbinary lesbian doe," with the pronoun set ce/cer/cers/cerself. The blog, titled Lesbian Deer Forever, used the handle lesbiangamora in 2014 when the flag was posted and is no longer publicly readable. No further biographical information has been documented. [1]
I am not the first to say that the current aromantic flag is hideous. But I had a pretty neat idea, what if they were the asexual/graysexual flags but with green instead of purple? Green is the symbolic color of aromanticisim [sic] as purple is with asexuality, and I feel as if the two communities should have corresponding flags.
From the original September 22, 2014 post announcing the aromantic and gray-aromantic flag proposals.
Also, the asexual and graysexual flags are known well, and it would be easier to spread an aromantic and grayromantic flag if it was similar in design.
From the same September 22, 2014 post.
I think this is a simpler, more efficient set of flags. Also it looks nicer.
Closing the same September 22, 2014 post.
Motivations
- To give the aromantic-spectrum community flags that visually correspond to the asexual and graysexual flags, using green as the symbolic color of aromanticism in place of asexuality's purple, so that the two communities' flags would parallel one another and spread more easily. [1]
Stated inspirations
- The asexual and graysexual pride flags. The post reproduces both as references beside the two green recolors, and the grayromantic flag recolors the five-stripe graysexual flag with the aromantic green.[1]
elodiefay (separate earlier flag, not the subject of this entry)
Designer of a distinct earlier Grey-Aromantic flag
elodiefay is the Tumblr handle credited with an earlier Grey-Aromantic flag, proposed on or before 12 June 2014, three months before the design this entry documents. The blog was deactivated on 1 July 2014; the post survives in a saltwaterships reblog. Unlike lesbiandoe, elodiefay published meanings for the bands: black as "traditional color for aro/ace," gray "for being gray-aro, or in-between aro and allo," white "for lack of attraction," and green as "the 'opposite' of red, the traditionally romantic color; and for respect to the aromantic flag." The post presented the design as a proposal open to revision, closing "Does anyone have any suggestions or tips?" [4] The earlier flag is a distinct artifact and may merit its own entry. [2][4]
Black : traditional color for aro/ace
From the June 2014 post proposing the earlier gray-aromantic flag.
Gray : for being gray-aro, or in-between aro and allo
From the same post.
White : for lack of attraction
From the same post.
Green : the “opposite” of red, the traditionally romantic color; and for respect to the aromantic flag
From the same post.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tips?
Closing the same post, presenting the design as a proposal open to revision.
Attribution notes
The flag was posted by Tumblr user lesbiandoe on September 22, 2014, at 04:57 UTC, in a post titled "NEW AROMANTIC AND GRAY-AROMANTIC FLAGS" (post 98123833281). The post survives in full in a reblog made three and a half minutes later by the grayromantic community blog Shades of Grayro, which preserves the original text, tags, and all four images. [1] The attribution was for a time difficult to confirm because the blog changed handles: the reblog's URL preserves the earlier handle lesbiangamora, while the blog is now named lesbiandoe, titled Lesbian Deer Forever, and closed to logged-out readers. The two handles are one blog before and after a rename. Community wikis credit lesbiandoe, consistent with the surviving reblog. [2][1] The Library.LGBT pride flag guide states that the origins of the greyromantic design are unknown. [3]
Origin
- Digital Origin
- Yes
No verified physical origin location. Without a confirmed location, Indigenous land context cannot be attributed.
Originated on Tumblr. No physical location of creation is documented. [2]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- Exact date
- First public use
- Period in Use
- 2014–present
The grayromantic half of the proposal was adopted: the 2014 design is the version reproduced in most aromantic-spectrum pride flag guides, including Library.LGBT and the Aromantics Wiki. [2][3][5] The companion aromantic flag from the same post did not displace the standard aromantic design. [1] Several alternate grayromantic flags have been proposed since 2020 (Apollo, November 21, 2020; Angel, December 3, 2020; Nyoomster, June 28, 2021), but none have displaced the 2014 design as the dominant community symbol. [2]
The grayromantic flag is one of the clearest examples in the aro-spectrum cluster of a recolor-derivative design: the structure of an existing flag is preserved while its color language is shifted to point at a different identity. This pattern recurs throughout the 2014 Tumblr a-spec wave. The original post survives only because the community blog Shades of Grayro reblogged it within four minutes of posting; the designer's own blog is no longer publicly readable. [1]
An earlier Grey-Aromantic flag had been proposed on or before 12 June 2014 by the Tumblr user elodiefay, whose blog was deactivated on 1 July that year. It is a structurally distinct artifact, a four-stripe black, gray, white, green design rather than a recolor of the graysexual gradient, and it published meanings for each band where lesbiandoe's did not. [2][4] The design that circulated is lesbiandoe's. [1]
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Graysexual Pride Flag
- Indirect influences
- Aromantic Pride Flag, Asexual Pride Flag
The grayromantic flag is a structural recolor of the graysexual flag (Rusignuolo, 2013), substituting the aromantic flag's green palette for graysexual's purple. The relationship is unusually clean for a Tumblr-origin a-spec flag: a single named visual parent and a stated palette source. The 2014 design's stability is itself notable given that several other 2014 a-spec flags have unstable or contested lineage. [2][3]
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 3 records across 3 generations.
- Ancestors -2
- Asexual Pride Flag
- Ancestor
- Graysexual Pride Flag
- This record
- Grayromantic Pride Flag (2014)
Colors & Symbolism
The flag represents the grayromantic experience of rare, conditional, or ambiguous romantic attraction within an otherwise aromantic orientation. The green, gray, white, gray, green gradient parallels the graysexual flag's structure, with green as the symbolic color of aromanticism in place of asexuality's purple. lesbiandoe published the design as a recolor rather than assigning fresh stripe meanings. [1][2][3]
| Colour | Hex | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dark green (aromantic) | #087D16 | Aromanticism. [2][3] | Library.LGBT pride flag guide; matches the designer's surviving file, which measures #077C15 to #087D16 at mid-stripe. [3][1] |
| Gray (grey area) | #B0B1AF | The transitional gray area between aromanticism and alloromanticism. [2][3] | Library.LGBT pride flag guide; matches the designer's surviving file, which measures #B0B2AF at mid-stripe. [3][1] |
| White (alloromanticism) | #FFFFFF | Alloromanticism, the experience of romantic attraction. [2][3] | Library.LGBT pride flag guide for greyromantic. Verified hex value. [3] |
| Gray (grey area) | #B0B1AF | The transitional gray area between aromanticism and alloromanticism. [2][3] | Library.LGBT pride flag guide; matches the designer's surviving file, which measures #B0B2AF at mid-stripe. [3][1] |
| Dark green (aromantic) | #087D16 | Aromanticism. [2][3] | Library.LGBT pride flag guide; matches the designer's surviving file, which measures #077C15 to #087D16 at mid-stripe. [3][1] |
This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.
lesbiandoe's post explains the colour substitution, green for purple as the two communities' corresponding symbolic colours, but assigns no meanings to individual stripes. [1] The per-stripe readings above are not the designer's, and the source that carries them does not present them as the designer's either: the LGBTQIA+ Wiki states that the flag "can be assumed to have the same meanings as the Greysexual flag stripes, but referring to Aromanticism instead of Asexuality." [2] They are given here as that inference. The earlier elodiefay gray-aromantic flag does carry meanings published by its own designer, and they are differently arranged. [4]
The designer's surviving file measures dark green between #077C15 and #087D16 and gray #B0B2AF at mid-stripe. [1] The Library.LGBT guide lists aromantic dark green #087D16, gray area #B0B1AF, and alloromanticism white #FFFFFF, matching the original artwork within one to two units per channel. [3] The values are sampled from the circulating artwork; no palette was published as a specification. Four of this entry's five sources could not be inspected, and all four are tertiary. What survives direct reading is the designer's own post, which sets out the recolouring but names no designer of the parent graysexual flag.
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Orientation
- horizontal
- Stripe Count
- 5
- Layout
- horizontal_stripes
- Stripes (Top → Bottom)
- Dark green, Gray, White, Gray, Dark green
Five horizontal stripes in a symmetric green, gray, white, gray, green layout, paralleling the five-stripe symmetric graysexual flag it recolors. In the designer's surviving 466 by 247 pixel file the outer green stripes render slightly wider than the inner three (about 57, 43, 44, 43, and 57 pixels); the file is a labeled presentation graphic captioned "Gray-Aromantic" rather than a specification, and circulating reproductions use five equal stripes. [1]
Five horizontal stripes, reproduced with equal widths. No aspect ratio was published; the surviving file is a labeled presentation graphic.
A five-stripe horizontal pride flag for grayromantic identity: dark green, gray, white, gray, dark green. lesbiandoe designed it as a recolor of Milith Rusignuolo's graysexual flag, substituting the aromantic green for graysexual's purple, and posted it on September 22, 2014, beside a companion aromantic proposal and the two purple reference flags. The surviving original file carries the in-image caption "Gray-Aromantic." [1]
Usage & Adoption
- Current Status
- active
The dominant pride flag for grayromantic identity in community use, reproduced in secondary databases including Library.LGBT, the Aromantics Wiki, and the LGBTQIA+ Wiki. [2][3][5]
Image Archive
Original artwork
Variant or proposal
In-text images
Discourse & Debates
- Whether grayromantic and demiromantic describe overlapping or distinct experiences. Community sources generally treat the two as related but separable points on the aromantic spectrum.
- Whether the grayromantic flag should be read as a sibling of the graysexual flag or as a derivative of it. Both readings appear in secondary sources.
Common misidentifications
- Sometimes confused with the graysexual pride flag because of the shared gradient structure. The grayromantic version uses the aromantic flag's green and black, not the asexual flag's purple.
- Sometimes confused with the aromantic pride flag itself, especially when reproduced at small sizes.
Spelled grayromantic, greyromantic, gray-romantic, or grey-romantic interchangeably across communities. All refer to the same identity. [2][3]
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 6 sources
- 1. Social media NEW AROMANTIC AND GRAY-AROMANTIC FLAGS (Shades of Grayro reblog of lesbiandoe, post 98123833281). lesbiandoe. Tumblr (2014-09-22). Accessed 2026-08-14
- 2. Greyromantic. LGBTQIA+ Wiki. Accessed 2026-04-07
Carries the widely repeated stripe meanings explicitly as inference, saying the flag "can be assumed" to share the graysexual flag's meanings. The site also publishes a notice that many of its pages predate its sourcing requirements.
- 3. Pride Flag Guide: Greyromantic. Library.LGBT (2021-06-11). Accessed 2026-04-07
Library.LGBT has been offline since July 2026; the URL no longer resolves and no archived capture has been located.
- 4. Social media I designed a suggestion for a gray-aromantic flag!. elodiefay. Tumblr (2014-06-12). Accessed 2026-08-16
The earlier gray-aromantic proposal, carrying meanings published by its own designer. Read through a saltwaterships reblog; the originating blog was deactivated on 1 July 2014.
- 5. Gray-romantic. Aromantics Wiki. Accessed 2026-04-07
- Greyromantic. Queerdom Wiki. Accessed 2026-04-07
Image Sources
- Rendering
- 2014 original by lesbiandoe
- The designer's original artwork from the September 22, 2014 post, with the in-image caption "Gray-Aromantic." The file survives in the same-day Shades of Grayro reblog. [1] · Credit: lesbiandoe · Tumblr (Shades of Grayro reblog)
- The companion aromantic flag proposed in the same September 22, 2014 post, recoloring the asexual flag in black, gray, white, and green. It did not displace the standard aromantic design. [1] · Credit: lesbiandoe · Tumblr (Shades of Grayro reblog)