Northwest Territories Gay Flag
Regional Pride Flag ·
The Northwest Territories flag with its two blue panels replaced by six rainbow stripes, the white centre panel and the territorial shield left intact. One of thirteen Canadian designs Greg Gomes marked as his own. [1] In this rendering the white panel takes about a third of the length, where the territorial flag gives it half.
Key facts
- Designer
- Greg Gomes
- Created
- Published online
- Published online by 2002
- Aspect Ratio
- 1:2 · apparent
- Ratio Notes
- Measured from the recovered artwork, 360 by 180 pixels and 5,841 bytes, the size the page lists. That is the 1:2 of the territorial flag. Published as apparent: measured from a served thumbnail, not from a specification.
- Represented Identity
- LGBTQ
Status Variant
Archive categories Regional and Language-Specific Pride Flags
Overview
The two blue panels of the Northwest Territories flag replaced by six horizontal rainbow stripes running the full height at hoist and fly, with the white centre panel and the territorial shield untouched. In this rendering the white panel takes about 36 per cent of the length where the territorial flag gives it half. Greg Gomes published it in the Canadian provincial series and marked it as his own design. [1] No physical example has been documented.
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- LGBTQ
- National Context
- Canada; Northwest Territories
Creators
The Creator
Greg Gomes
Designer and publisher
Greg Gomes is credited as the designer of the flags marked on his own pages, and as the publisher of the two sites that carried them. He ran Gay Journey at gayjourney.com, whose footer carries a copyright range beginning in 2002, and the later Gay Flags of the World at gayflags.biz, 2005 to 2011. Both published from American Dimensions, PO Box 573, McKinney, Texas 75070, and both ran the same four series of gay flags: general, national, United States state, and Canadian provincial. A post-office box is a mailing address. It does not establish where Gomes lived, and no source states where any of these files was drawn.
He marked his own designs with a symbol before the flag name, which is what separates the flags he made from the flags he catalogued. The marking is per flag and not every flag carries it: of the forty-seven on the national page, Azerbaijan, Canada and the United States do not. [2] His terms for reuse were set out on the same page, in his own words: the marked designs were his and Gay Journey’s property and protected by copyright; anyone wishing to use one was to contact him and say where it would be used, credit the design to him, and make the flag a clickable link back to gay_flags.htm. He also stated that the marked designs were not for sale through the page. [2]
Outside his own sites the collection was noticed twice on Flags of the World. Francisco Santos wrote on 14 May 2003 that GayJourney.COM carried “lots of rainbows: from Argentina to Wales, EU, UNO, US states, Canadian provinces and general gay flags,” and added that “perhaps not all of these flags are actually used in the real word.” Richard Knipel wrote on 14 June 2004 that most of the flags, “with ‘GJ’ underneath, were designed by the site’s author, Greg Gomes,” and that it was “hard to say how many of these are flying somewhere.” [3] Tomislav Todorović, reading the state series in 2015, recorded that the Wyoming flag was “not marked as his creation,” unlike most images.
One property of the collection recurs across the individual flags and is recorded here rather than on each of them: of the twenty-nine files recovered from the two sites, fifteen share one identical set of six sampled rainbow values, across both the Canadian and the national series. The rainbow arrives in these designs as a fixed component of the collection rather than as a choice made for each flag.
The thirty-one entries held here are not his complete output. Gay Journey and Gay Flags of the World carried further national, United States state, Canadian and general designs for which no artwork has been recovered, and the archive builds entries only for flags it can see. No biographical source about Gomes has been located beyond the two sites and the Texas post-office box, and no photograph of him has been found.
Attribution
- Organization
- Gay Flags of the World
Attribution notes
This flag is one of the thirteen Canadian provincial and territorial designs, and it carries the symbol Gomes placed before a flag name to mark a design as his own rather than one he catalogued. [1] His publication, that marking convention and his reuse terms are set out in the creator record below.
Origin
- Digital Origin
- Gay Flags of the World (gayflags.biz)
- Origin Type
- creation place unknown; published online
- Physical Origin Status
- Not documented.
Represents the Northwest Territories. The design was not made there: it was published through a McKinney, Texas post-office address and the place it was drawn is not documented. [1]
Indigenous land context
Dehcho, Tłı̨chǫ, Sahtu and Gwich'in peoples — Treaty 11 signatories. Treaty 11 was signed in 1921 and 1922 by the Crown and representatives of the Dehcho, Tłı̨chǫ, Sahtu and Gwich'in peoples, and covers 950,000 km² of present-day Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. [4]
Yellowknives Dene, Łutsël K'é Dene, Salt River, Smith's Landing, K'átł'odeeche and Deninu Kų́ę́ First Nations — Treaty 8 signatories in the Northwest Territories. Treaty 8, signed in 1899, is the largest numbered treaty by area at just over 841,487 km², and was signed by 39 First Nations, six of them in the Northwest Territories. [4]
Colonial / settler context
Two of the numbered treaties cover the Northwest Territories. Treaty 8, of 1899, is the largest by area, just over 841,487 km², signed by 39 First Nations including the Yellowknives Dene, Łutsël K'é Dene, Salt River, Smith's Landing, K'átł'odeeche and Deninu Kų́ę́ First Nations. Treaty 11, the last of the numbered treaties, was signed in 1921 and 1922 by the Crown and representatives of the Dehcho, Tłı̨chǫ, Sahtu and Gwich'in peoples and covers 950,000 km² of what is now Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. [4] Canada's own account of these agreements is that at their core they were large-scale land surrenders that, from the federal perspective of the time, brought Indigenous peoples under the jurisdiction of the Dominion. [4][5] Modern treaties negotiated since 1973 address the territory in different terms. [6] The territorial shield Gomes kept is Crown heraldry, and no source places him in the Northwest Territories or records consultation with any of these Nations. [4][5][6]
- Indigenous engagement
- None documented. No source records Gomes consulting, or being asked by, any of the Nations or governments named here.
The flag represents the Northwest Territories. Where it was made is not documented. The design was published through Gay Flags of the World (gayflags.biz), run from American Dimensions, PO Box 573, McKinney, Texas, which is a mailing address for the publisher and not evidence of where Gomes lived or worked. No source located places Gomes in the Northwest Territories or identifies him as a resident or community member there. [1]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- Published online
- Published online by 2002; the collection ran to 2011. No physical use documented.
- Creation Bounds
- Four different things are recorded here and they are not the same date. The copyright range on Gay Journey begins in 2002, and the site's flag section is in the Internet Archive from 28 October 2002, which bounds the collection rather than this design. [1] Collection-level publication is documented from outside the sites twice: Francisco Santos described GayJourney.COM on Flags of the World on 14 May 2003 as carrying "lots of rainbows: from Argentina to Wales, EU, UNO, US states, Canadian provinces and general gay flags," and Richard Knipel wrote again on 14 June 2004. Neither report lists or dates an individual flag. [3] Direct documentation of this design is later than either: the Internet Archive index holds a capture of this image file, taken on 11 December 2011. No source dates the design itself, and no flag in the collection carries a date of its own. The year given is the earliest year the collection is documented in publication.
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Rainbow Pride Flag
- Sibling flags
- Alberta Gay Flag, Straight Ally Pride Flag, Anarcha-Queer Flag (rainbow variant), Argentina Gay Flag, Australia Gay Flag, Brazil Gay Flag
+ 44 more
British Columbia Gay Flag, Canadian Pride Flag, Chicago Pride Flag (Rainbow Stripes, Purple Stars), Chile Gay Flag, Dominican Republic Gay Flag, Egypt Gay Flag, European Union Gay Flag, France Gay Flag, Gay Pride Flag of Pakistan, Heteroflexible Pride Flag, Heterosexual / Straight Pride Flag, Homoflexible Pride Flag, India Gay Flag, Italy Gay Flag, Japan Gay Flag, Jewish Gay Pride Flag, Manitoba Gay Flag, Mexico Gay Flag, Netherlands Gay Flag, New Brunswick Gay Flag, Newfoundland Gay Flag, Nova Scotia Gay Flag, Nunavut Gay Flag, Ontario Gay Flag, Palestinian Gay Pride Flag, Panama Gay Flag, Philadelphia Pride Flag, Prince Edward Island Gay Flag, Quebec Gay Flag, Rainbow Flag with White Triangle (Sapporo), Rainbow Israel Flag, Rainbow Polish Flag (2014, Angela Getler), Russia Gay Flag, Saskatchewan Gay Flag, Social Justice Pride Flag, South African Gay Pride Flag, Switzerland Gay Flag, Tanzania Gay Flag, Texas Rainbow Flag, Turkish Gay Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2005, Zoccole), Two-Spirit Pride Flag (2016 Tumblr documentation), Victory Over AIDS Flag (1980s, designer unknown), Yukon Territory Gay Flag - Lineage confidence
- high
Two visual sources, one of which the lineage graph can hold and one of which it cannot. The six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag is a direct Pride-flag parent and is registered as one. The Flag of the Northwest Territories is the second visual source, and it is recorded as a structured source-flag relationship in Design rather than as a graph node, because the graph accepts only Encycloflaggia entries and no Pride entry should be invented to create one. The relationship here is: source flag with fields replaced by rainbow stripes. Flags of the World describes the method this whole class of flag follows as "taking an existing flag and 'merging' it with the Rainbow Flag or various GLBT symbols to represent GLBT members of the group the existing flag represents." [3] The other Gomes flags are siblings by collection rather than by descent: one designer, one operation, four series published together under one set of terms. A shared designer is a collection relationship and not a substitute for parentage.
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 4 records across 4 generations.
- Ancestors -3
- Original Rainbow Flag (1978)
- Ancestors -2
- Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)
- Ancestor
- Rainbow Pride Flag
- This record
- Northwest Territories Gay Flag
Colors & Symbolism
| Colour | Hex |
|---|---|
| Red | #FF0000 |
| Orange | #FF6300 |
| Yellow | #FFFF00 |
| Green | #319C00 |
| Blue | #0000CE |
| Violet | #CE31FF |
This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.
No statement of meaning has been located. The page gives the flags names and nothing more. [1]
Placement: the six stripes fill the hoist and fly panels only. The white centre panel and the shield carry none of them. These are working values sampled from the surviving artwork at the centre of each band, not published specifications; the collection-level note on the recurring Gomes rainbow values is carried in the creator record rather than repeated on each flag.
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 1:2 · apparent
- Ratio Notes
- Measured from the recovered artwork, 360 by 180 pixels and 5,841 bytes, the size the page lists. That is the 1:2 of the territorial flag. Published as apparent: measured from a served thumbnail, not from a specification.
- Center Symbol
- the shield of arms of the Northwest Territories on the white centre panel
- Additional Symbols
- wavy blue bar across the white chief, jagged division below the chief, gold rectangles on the green portion of the shield, white fox mask on the red portion of the shield
The recovered artwork is 360 by 180 pixels. The page lists the file as 5,841 bytes, which the recovered copy matches exactly, identifying it as the file the page served. [1] Observed in the artwork: The white centre panel is 130 of the image's 360 pixels wide, about 36 per cent, with each striped side panel 115 pixels; on the flag of the Northwest Territories the white panel is half the length and each blue panel a quarter. It is not documented whether this is deliberate or an artefact of the rendering. The image limits what can be established: The fox mask's finer features and the exact number and placement of the gold rectangles, particularly those cut by the edges of the green portion, are not reliably countable at this size. The design is described from the recovered artwork, not from any source that describes it.
No published proportion or construction sheet has been located. The recovered image is a thumbnail served by the page rather than a specification. [1]
The two blue panels of the flag of the Northwest Territories are replaced by six horizontal stripes running the full height at hoist and fly: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet from the top. The white centre panel is retained and stops the stripes at its edges. The territorial shield sits on the white panel, showing a white chief crossed by a wavy blue bar and divided from the lower field by a jagged line, below which a green portion strewn with gold rectangles meets a red portion bearing a white fox mask. The rendering is 360 by 180 pixels, with the white panel running from pixel 115 to pixel 244.
Source flag and visual comparison
- Source flag
- Flag of the Northwest Territories
- Jurisdiction
- the Northwest Territories
- Relationship
- source flag with fields replaced by rainbow stripes
- Elements retained
- the white centre panel and the territorial shield with its wavy blue bar, gold rectangles and white fox mask
- Elements altered
- the two blue panels, replaced by six rainbow stripes; the white panel is narrowed to about 36 per cent of the length against half on the territorial flag
The territorial flag is a vertical triband of blue, white and blue with the shield on the centre panel. Gomes recoloured the blue and kept the rest.
Usage & Adoption
- Current Status
- unknown
No physical use has been documented. [1]
Image Archive
Source Flag and Visual Comparison
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 7 sources
Designer page
- 1. Canadian Provincial Gay Flags. Greg Gomes. Gay Flags of the World / American Dimensions, McKinney, Texas (2011-10-13). Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived version
- 2. National Gay Flags Of The World. Greg Gomes. Gay Journey / American Dimensions, McKinney, Texas. Accessed 2026-08-10 · Archived version
The designer's own page. Cited here for the marking convention, the reuse terms he states, and the three flags of the forty-seven that carry no marker.
Databases
- 3. Variations of the Gay Pride Rainbow Flag (1). randy young (editor); reports by Steve Kramer, Francisco Santos and Richard Knipel. Flags of the World (2023-09-30). Accessed 2026-08-10
Read in full. Cited for Kramer's description of the merging method this class of flag follows, and for the two dated outside notices of the Gomes collection, 14 May 2003 and 14 June 2004.
Government
- 4. Treaties in the Northwest Territories. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada (2024-04-09). Accessed 2026-08-11
- 5. The Numbered Treaties (1871-1921). Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada (2023-03-15). Accessed 2026-08-11
Encyclopedias & Reference
- 6. Comprehensive Land Claims: Modern Treaties. The Canadian Encyclopedia. The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada. Accessed 2026-08-11
Image file page
- File:Flag of the Northwest Territories.svg. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. Accessed 2026-08-11
The file-description page for the source-flag comparison image in this entry's gallery, read for its licence, authorship and restriction metadata.
Image Sources
- Rendering
- original artwork recovered
- Northwest Territories gay flag as published by Greg Gomes on the Gay Journey provincial page. · Credit: Design by Greg Gomes, Gay Journey · Gay Journey, Provincial Gay Flags Of CanadaRights Gay Journey identified the marked designs as Gomes's property and asked that reuse be credited to him and linked back to gay_flags.htm. The credit and the link here are placed to those terms as published; the present rights and contact status have not been independently verified. [1]
- Flag of the Northwest Territories (the Northwest Territories), the source flag for this design. The territorial flag is a vertical triband of blue, white and blue with the shield on the centre panel. Gomes recoloured the blue and kept the rest. Relationship: source flag with fields replaced by rainbow stripes. Retained: the white centre panel and the territorial shield with its wavy blue bar, gold rectangles and white fox mask. Altered: the two blue panels, replaced by six rainbow stripes; the white panel is narrowed to about 36 per cent of the length against half on the territorial flag. · Credit: Wikimedia Commons contributors · Wikimedia CommonsRights Public domain. Wikimedia Commons marks this file with an insignia restriction: it depicts a flag, coat of arms, seal or other official insignia whose use is restricted in many countries independently of copyright. Reproduced here as a comparison for the Gomes design, not as a representation of any government.