Multisexual Alternative Flag (26-band design)

Overview

Nothing about the making of this flag is documented. The earliest location found for it is the LGBTQIA+ Wiki, where the file was uploaded on 21 January 2022 by an automated account with the note "Imported from LGBTA Fandom Wiki", so it existed on that earlier wiki before then. ^[1]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

multisexual

Subcommunity

multisexual umbrella

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

No creator is identified. The surviving record is a file imported to the LGBTQIA+ Wiki on 21 January 2022 from LGBTA Fandom, and it carries no designer, no design date, no construction explanation and no colour meanings. ^[1] Nothing further has been recovered.

Origin

Digital Origin

LGBTA Fandom Wiki, then the LGBTQIA+ Wiki

No verified physical origin location.

No original publication has been located. ^[1]

Dates & Chronology

Period in Use

Documented before 21 January 2022; design date unrecorded

Published in the LGBTQIA+ Wiki's multisexual gallery alongside at least seven other designs for the same umbrella. No use outside that wiki has been located. ^[1]

The design's method is its argument: rather than propose a new symbol for the umbrella, it stacks the flags already in use beneath it. That is the same approach arco-pluris took in the m-spec flag of 14 February 2019, which draws on the bisexual, polysexual, pansexual, omnisexual, trisexual, quadsexual and quintsexual flags and adds an orange band for everyone else. This flag has no orange band and is a different design. ^[1]

Lineage

No design relationship is documented. The apparent resemblance between the upper band groups and several multisexual palettes is an editorial observation and is not treated as lineage, because no located source describes how the design was made. The 2019 arco-pluris m-spec flag is a separate design and is offered as a contextual comparison only; nothing read here says the two share a method.

Colors & Symbolism

The umbrella represented by assembling the flags under it. No statement of meaning has been located, and the flag carries no stated key. ^[1]

No colour meanings are recorded anywhere this flag has been found. ^[1]

No palette has been published for this design and no colour meanings are recorded in the surviving source. ^[1] Read down the field, the earlier groups resemble the bisexual, pansexual, polysexual and omnisexual palettes, but that is a visual observation made here and not a documented account of how the flag was built. No source states that it was assembled from particular existing flags, and the later bands are not assigned to identities on resemblance alone.

Design

Aspect Ratio

1920:1481 · apparent

Ratio Notes

Measured from the file held here, 1920 by 1481 pixels, about 1.297 to 1. That is not 5:3 and the archive production ratio does not apply to this historical artifact. The entry previously reported three different sizes; the file in the archive is the one measured, and any other revision or derivative should be recorded with its own dimensions rather than merged into this figure. ^[1]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

26

Layout

horizontal_stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

#C22B6F, #905492, #1539A2, #E73F8B, #F8D849, #58AFF8, #E03CB4, #66D175, #4991EF, #EFA0CB, #EA62BA, #200443, #6561F6, #91A5F8, #4999B7, #71D2C7, #95E6D4, #B1E4ED, #9DB0E5, #979AE8, #4D7BCF, #66A0EA, #83C7F6, #B0E9F9, #FEFBE2, #FDF2CC

Twenty-six horizontal bands of unequal depth. ^[1]

Bands grouped in runs, each run reproducing another flag's palette. ^[1] One run is identified: bands 10 to 14 are the omnisexual flag's five colours in order. The others do not match any palette this archive holds.

Twenty-six horizontal bands of unequal depth, running from a deep pink at the top through purples, blues, yellow, greens and pinks to a near-white cream at the foot. The fourth run of five bands, #EFA0CB, #EA62BA, #200443, #6561F6 and #91A5F8, reproduces the omnisexual flag closely, every value within about twenty units per channel of the set recorded here for it. The opening three bands approximate the bisexual flag. The remaining runs are not identified: their values sit far enough from the flags they resemble that naming them would be a guess. ^[1]

Usage & Adoption

Online Usage

Published in the LGBTQIA+ Wiki's multisexual gallery. ^[1]

Current Status

Documented on LGBTA Fandom before its January 2022 wiki import; no physical or organizational use located

No documented case of use has been located.

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• Confused with the m-spec flag by arco-pluris of 14 February 2019, a separate design that includes an orange band. The two are sometimes described as sharing a construction method, but no source read here documents the method of either. ^[1]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

The file published on the LGBTQIA+ Wiki

• The Multisexual Alternative flag as published on the LGBTQIA+ Wiki. · Credit: Creator unrecorded · LGBTQIA+ Wiki · source file