Heterosexual / Straight Pride Flag

Overview

Not documented. No source reviewed states the designer's reason. The form is a monochrome version of the rainbow flag, and Flags of the World contributors read it in that light, but that is a reading of the design rather than a documented intent. ^[2]

Formally the design is the six-stripe rainbow flag with the color removed, a resemblance noted at the point it was first documented. Steve Kramer described a six-stripe black-and-white flag on the Flags of the World mailing list on 5 February 2001: "I have seen a proposed flag for heterosexuals. I believe the design was six horizontal stripes, N-W-N-W-N-W. The obvious reference is to the Rainbow Flag, essentially removed of its color." He could not find it again four years later, and wrote in 2005 that it was "essentially, suggested by political conservatives who were generally opposed to the symbolism of a flag for a sexual orientation anyway," adding that conservatives had "rhetorically suggested such a symbol many times since, indicating that perhaps that is its main value." No designer is identified in the sources reviewed. The day before Kramer's first post, Antonio Martins had described the absence the flag was proposed to fill: "the reason for non-existence of a flag for heterosexuals is the same that explains the general absence of specific symbology for any majority, either ethnic, social, etc." ^[2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

Heterosexuality (an orientation); 'straight pride' is also a contested political slogan

Movement

Associated with the contested 'straight pride' slogan; documented uses of the black-and-white design range from oppositional political display to appearance among other orientation flags at Pride.

'Straight pride' is a contested political slogan rather than a recognized identity category. LGBTQ+ organizations and mainstream social science reject the framing of heterosexuality as analogous to marginalized sexual and gender identities. ^[3]

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

No designer is identified in the sources reviewed. Steve Kramer described a six-stripe black-and-white design on the Flags of the World mailing list on 5 February 2001, the earliest located record; it describes or proposes the flag rather than fixing a creation date, a maker, or a physical display. The February 2001 message is the earliest located description, not a proven first use. ^[2]

Origin

Origin location not documented. The earliest located record is a 2001 Flags of the World mailing-list description.

The design's place and medium of origin are unknown. The earliest located documentation is Steve Kramer's description on the Flags of the World mailing list, dated 5 February 2001. ^[2]

Dates & Chronology

Period in Use

documented from 2001; later use not continuously recorded

Documented circulation includes flag guides, community discussion, reproduction across social media, photographed displays at several Pride events, and a related charged variant used in Chipman, New Brunswick, in 2018. ^[2][1]

In October 2018 the village council of Chipman, New Brunswick, raised a black-and-white striped flag charged with interlinked gender symbols. Flags of the World describes the Chipman flag as five alternating black-and-white stripes with a gender-symbol charge, a related charged variant that shares the alternating black-and-white field rather than an exact specimen of the six-stripe design. ^[2] The raising followed the village's first LGBT Pride flag that June, and the council voted for it unanimously. Glenn Bishop, who organized it with others, said it was meant to show support for straight people and that no harm was intended: "We are not against the gay pride people at all. I'm not against gay people; anybody's sexual preference is their choice." Mayor Carson Atkinson framed the vote as accepting "a flag provided by the straight community" alongside the Pride flag accepted earlier. ^[1][5] CBC reported that the design "has been raised by some conservative groups in the U.S. in response to gay pride events." ^[1]

Local Queer residents described it very differently. Justin Fudge, a hair stylist who is gay and had lived in Chipman for more than eight years, said that "all of a sudden this atrocity is waving in the wind" and that the flag was "most definitely a response to the LGBTQ pride flag being raised back in June." He photographed it, and in response tied a large Pride flag to his car and drove through the village. ^[1][5]

The village took the flag down the next afternoon and raised a Canadian flag in its place, after a response that council said included "personal attacks and threats" against councillors. Bishop arrived shortly after and asked who had removed it, and an altercation with members of the LGBT community followed. Global News covered the removal the same day. ^[1][4]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Rainbow Pride Flag

Direct children

Straight Ally Pride Flag

Formally, the design is the six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag rendered without color. That reference was recognized in the earliest located description, although no creator statement confirming the design's intent has been found. The Straight Ally Pride Flag ("ally-pride-flag") is a direct formal descendant: it sets a rainbow chevron on this black-and-white field, and that entry's own record describes the borrowing. The formal relationship does not make the two flags' political meanings identical. ^[2]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 5 records across 5 generations.

Ancestors -3

Original Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -2

Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestor

Rainbow Pride Flag

This record

Heterosexual / Straight Pride Flag

Children

Straight Ally Pride Flag

Colors & Symbolism

The flag carries no symbol and no text, and no single meaning is documented for it. On Flags of the World its describers read it variously, from "the yin and the yang of male and female" to a "complementary uniformity flag" to "a heterosexual supremacy flag." ^[2] Formally it is the six-stripe rainbow flag with the color removed. ^[6][2] The phrase "straight pride" has often been used in reactionary and anti-LGBTQ contexts; some documented displays instead present the flag as one orientation flag among many. ^[2][3]

Standard rendering value. ^[6]

No creator statement of meaning is documented. Later readings of the black-and-white design range from an orientation symbol shown among others to an oppositional political symbol; the "straight pride" slogan carries a documented history of reactionary and anti-LGBTQ use, though not every documented display of this design presents it that way. ^[2][3]

No creator-issued palette is known. Black #000000 and white #FFFFFF are the archive's standard rendering values for the design.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

6

Layout

horizontal stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

black, white, black, white, black, white

Six alternating horizontal stripes of black and white, in the order black, white, black, white, black, white. Kramer's 2001 description is "six horizontal stripes, N-W-N-W-N-W." No creator-issued construction sheet or aspect ratio has been located, and documented renderings differ in orientation: the flag has been photographed both ways up, and Flags of the World calls it "another one with 'no right side up'," though Martin Karner argues from the straight ally flag's design and the majority of sightings that black at the top is correct. ^[2]

No creator-issued construction sheet is known, and documented renderings differ in orientation. ^[2]

Six equal horizontal stripes alternating black and white, carrying no symbol and no text. Formally it is the six-stripe rainbow flag rendered without color.

Usage & Adoption

Geographic Usage

Documented Pride displays in Mexico, Guernsey (Channel Islands) and Brazil; a charged variant raised in Chipman, New Brunswick, Canada

Online Usage

Documented circulation includes digital flag guides, community discussion, and reproduction across social media.

Event Usage

Mexico City Pride 2017, Channel Islands Pride 2018, Channel Islands Pride 2020, Curitiba Diversity Parade 2022

Current Status

active

Documented circulation includes flag guides, community discussion, reproduction across social media, and photographed displays at several Pride events, alongside a related charged variant raised at Chipman, New Brunswick, in 2018. ^[2][1]

Image Archive

The Variant in Use

Reception

Discourse & Debates

• Competing readings of the black-and-white design include an orientation flag shown among other orientation flags, an oppositional political symbol, a monochrome inversion or satire of the rainbow flag, an unnecessary majority-pride symbol, and a possible identifier within a broader display of orientation flags. ^[2][8]

Common misidentifications

• The black-and-white design is frequently confused with the Straight Ally Pride Flag, which sets a rainbow chevron on the same field. ^[8][7]

Common confusions

• Multiple unrelated designs have circulated under the phrase "straight pride"; they are separate designs, not variants or revisions of the six-stripe black-and-white flag. The 2019 Boston parade used a blue-and-pink design with interlocked gender symbols that its organizers call "the blue and pink flag." ^[2] Other designs described as "straight pride," including a Russian "Real Family" flag and a "Super Straight" flag, are different again; PinkNews groups such variations together as "markers of Straight Pride, a countermovement to LGBTQ+ Pride." ^[9]
• The flag raised at Chipman, New Brunswick, in 2018 is a charged variant sharing this design's alternating black-and-white field, not the plain six-stripe flag and not one of the designs above. ^[2][1]
• The design is also frequently confused with the Straight Ally Pride Flag, which sets a rainbow chevron on the same black-and-white field. ^[8][7]

Criticisms

• Queer publications describe the straight flag as reactionary and harmful. PinkNews: "a copy of the Pride flag but wiped of colour and meaning," created "as a direct attempt to mimic and troll the Pride flag," with all variations "markers of Straight Pride, a countermovement to LGBTQ+ Pride." ^[9] INTO: it belongs to "a homophobic movement with the goal of diminishing LGBTQ+ voices," and "because heterosexual individuals are not marginalized for their sexual orientation the use of a flag such as the one above can be used to harm oppressed communities." ^[3]
• The flag's describers on Flags of the World did not agree on what it meant, ranging between "an anti-gay flag," "the yin and the yang of male and female," a "uniformity flag," and "a heterosexual supremacy flag." ^[2]
• When a related charged variant was raised at Chipman, New Brunswick, in October 2018, local Queer residents described it as an atrocity while the people who raised it said no harm was intended. ^[1]

Community reception

The Straight Ally Pride Flag sets a rainbow chevron on this same black-and-white field; Flags of the World describes its construction as "Using the black-white 'colors' of the heterosexual flag as a field." ^[2] That flag is manufactured, sold, and included in multiple Pride flag guides, and the two are often read together. In a 2024 r/AskLGBT thread, the most upvoted comment folded them into a single objection: "Heterosexuality doesn't really need a flag, it's just like the ally flag in my opinion." ^[8]

Discussion of the flag inside Queer spaces is largely an argument about heterosexuality rather than about the design. The 2024 thread was opened by someone asking why the flag is so dull: "It just speaks to me like 'Oh, you're straight? Boring. Here's your flag, loser.'" The most upvoted reply set the terms: "Heterosexuality doesn't really need a flag... You're not going to get hate crimed or bullied for being straight... The flags are to represent us, and how we fought and are still fighting for just the right to live." Others said the flag "exists to mock the LGBT." ^[8]

Two replies in the thread ran against the consensus. One corrected another commenter's claim that the flag was made to mock the legalization of same-sex marriage: "the one that is black and white actually originated in the early 2000s so no," separating the Russian and Boston flags as later and different designs. Another argued the flag has a use others had not raised: "some queer people (trans people, asexual people, etc etc) might be straight in addition to having a queer identity, so the flag can be useful for them," adding that a colorless design is helpfully "instantly distinguishable" from a Queer flag. ^[8]

The two flags are also confused in ordinary circulation. In June 2022 a member of a Gacha Club fan group on Facebook posted a two-slide explainer distinguishing this flag from the Straight Ally Pride Flag, writing: "I've seen alot of people using the wrong straight flag that shows support/respect to the queer people!" ^[7]

'Straight pride' is a contested political slogan rather than a recognized identity category, and the phrase has a documented history of reactionary and anti-LGBTQ use. Positioning heterosexuality as analogous to marginalized sexual and gender identities is a framing rejected by LGBTQ+ organizations and mainstream social science. ^[3]

Editorial note

This entry covers the alternating black-and-white striped design documented by February 2001. Other flags described as 'straight pride' are separate designs.

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Six alternating black and white stripes; no creator-issued specification located

• The Chipman flag on its pole, from Global News coverage of its removal, 22 October 2018. ^[4] · Credit: Global News, 22 October 2018. Rights undetermined; low-resolution news still reproduced for documentation under fair use. · Global News at 6 New Brunswick
• The first of two slides from a June 2022 post to a Gacha Club fan group, made to stop people using the wrong flag. Its author's stated reason: "I've seen alot of people using the wrong straight flag that shows support/respect to the queer people!" ^[7] · Credit: Kaveh TheArchitect, The Gacha Club Facebook group, 5 June 2022. Rights undetermined; low-resolution screenshot reproduced for commentary under fair use. · Facebook, The Gacha Club group