Heteroflexible Pride Flag

Overview

Not established. The oldest documented copy located is a 1,200 by 720 pixel SVG released under CC0 and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 22 March 2021 by the contributor Nikki, who describes it as own work made in a text editor. ^[1] That fixes a date by which the design existed in that form. It does not fix the date the design was made, and no earlier copy has been sought.

Creators

Attribution notes

No designer has been identified. The Commons file names Nikki as the author of that SVG and describes it as own work, but Nikki is a longstanding Commons contributor who redraws existing flags in clean vector form, and authoring a file is not designing a flag. Whether Nikki originated this design or redrew one already in circulation is unestablished and is the first thing to settle. ^[1]

Origin

Unresearched. No source has been read that places this design.

Dates & Chronology

First public use

March 22, 2021

The Commons file is used on eleven language Wikipedias, at articles on heteroflexibility in Bikol, Danish, English, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Simple English, Ukrainian, Zulu and Chinese, in a German list of terms for sexual orientations, in a Japanese list of gender identities, on the Portuguese LGBT portal and its symbols page, and in a Commons user template. ^[1] That is distribution through reference works rather than documented use by people.

Lineage

Unresearched, and the resemblance is not treated as descent. The greyscale field recalls the black-and-white heterosexual flag and Commons files the SVG under Heterosexuality flags as well as SVG bisexuality flags, but a categoriser's placement is not a documented derivation and no source read states one. ^[1][2]

Colors & Symbolism

No published statement of meaning has been located. The greyscale field and the rainbow band invite an obvious reading, and the entry does not make it: nothing read attributes a meaning to either element, and the design's own designer is unidentified.

No published colour values have been located. The file is a 630-byte SVG whose source would carry exact values, but the archive has read the rendering rather than the markup, and a sampled pixel is not a designer's specification.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

6

Layout

horizontal bands with a vertical band overlaid

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

black, dark grey, mid grey, grey, light grey, white

Additional Symbols

a vertical band of six rainbow blocks running the full height at the centre

Read off the Commons SVG rendered at 3,840 by 2,304 pixels. Six horizontal bands of equal depth run from black at the top through four progressively lighter greys to white at the foot. A vertical band about one seventh of the flag's width runs the full height at the centre, divided into six blocks that align with the horizontal bands: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and magenta from top to bottom. The greyscale field reads as the black-and-white straight flag opened out into a gradient, and the vertical rainbow crosses it rather than sitting on it. No published construction sheet has been located, and the colours are named from the rendering rather than from a specification. ^[1]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

• Credit: Nikki, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Archive Notes

A stub, opened deliberately and not yet researched. One source has been read: the Wikimedia Commons file page for the CC0 SVG. It gives an author for that file, a date for that file, a licence and a distribution footprint across eleven Wikipedias. It gives no designer for the design, no date for the design, no origin, and no statement of meaning. The artwork has not been viewed, so this entry describes no stripes, no colors and no layout.

Unknowns

• Who designed the flag, as distinct from who drew the Commons SVG.
• When the design was made. 22 March 2021 is the file's date and is a ceiling, not an origin.
• Where it was made and by which community.
• What the design is meant to mean.
• Whether it has any documented use by heteroflexible people, as opposed to circulation through reference works.
• What the flag actually looks like, since the artwork has not been examined.

Research gaps

• View the artwork. Nothing about the design can be written until the file is in the repository and has been looked at.
• ASK NIKKI. The Commons contributor is reachable on their talk page and can say whether they originated the design or redrew an existing one. That single answer decides whether this flag has a known designer.
• Look for an earlier copy. If the design predates March 2021 it will be on Tumblr, DeviantArt, the LGBTQIA+ Wiki or a MOGAI blog, and the origin post is what carries the designer, the date and the stated meaning.
• READ Hetero-flexible flag.jpg. Its file page may name a different source for the same design.