Palestinian Gay Pride Flag

Overview

Simpson's listing gives her reason: to draw attention to Queer Palestinians, whom she describes as unable to live openly. ^[1]

A reworking of the flag of Palestine in which the national bands are kept and the field around them is opened into a rainbow. Simpson describes the intent in her listing: “This Pride ensign of the Palestinian flag is an original copyrighted design, weaving the rainbow into traditional Arab colors”. She frames the pin as a response to an online exchange about her politics and says she wanted to know “what can I do with a pin shop to draw awareness to the cause?” ^[1] Wardi describes his own later method differently, as a reconstruction: “I based this design on the flag of Palestine and used the colors of the rainbow pride flag, but kept the red and green from the flag of Palestine.” ^[2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

Queer and LGBTQ Palestinians

Movement

Palestinian solidarity

National Context

Palestine

The design addresses Queer and LGBTQ Palestinians broadly rather than gay men alone. Flags of the World files it as a “Multi-stripes Palestinian LGBTQ” flag, the Reddit post that circulated it was captioned “Queers For Palestine”, and Simpson's listing addresses “lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, and other kinds of Palestinians”. The designer sells it under the product title “Palestine Progress Pride “#WeWantToLive” Rainbow Pin”. The entry keeps the title under which the design is catalogued in Wardi's repository while recording the broader terms. ^[2][3][1]

The design joins a national flag to a Queer one. Its only documented use is at a solidarity rally in the United States; no use in Palestine, and no adoption by a Palestinian organisation, has been documented for this design. ^[2][3]

Creators

The Creators

Zack Wardi

Redrew the design; not its author

Zack Wardi (he/him/pup) is a Palestinian in the diaspora who lives and works on the Haldimand Tract in Canada, which he names as "the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples." ^[4] He describes himself as a cloud systems developer and runs arabi.gay, a Mastodon server. ^[5] He did not design this flag. He saw it carried at a rally in Brooklyn, searched for its author without success, then drew his own vector of it in two proportions and dedicated both to the public domain under CC0 1.0. ^[2]

I first saw this design at a Brooklyn Rally and posted on Reddit, and tried for a while to find the original creator of the flag, but had no luck. So I decided to design one myself.

On how the vector came to be drawn.

I based this design on the flag of Palestine and used the colors of the rainbow pride flag, but kept the red and green from the flag of Palestine.

On his method in redrawing it.

I created an alternative version with propotions of 2:1 to keep the chevron occupying one third of width the flag. I think this is closer to the original design.

On the second of his two renderings. Spelling as published.

I live and work on the Haldimand Tract, the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples.

His own land acknowledgment, given on his links page.

Attribution notes

Hannah Simpson, who trades as ChangedMe, claims the design as hers: her listing calls it “an original copyrighted design” and “an original artwork, designed, sold, and shipped by an actual transgender woman”, and describes redrawing it after requests from buyers. The claim is first-party and it is contemporaneous, appearing in a listing captured on 18 December 2020, nearly three years before the design was photographed in Brooklyn. No competing claim of authorship has been located. ^[1]

Two later people drew the design without claiming it. Zack Wardi saw it at the Brooklyn rally and wrote: “I first saw this design at a Brooklyn Rally and posted on Reddit, and tried for a while to find the original creator of the flag, but had no luck. So I decided to design one myself.” His files are redrawings. ^[2] Tomislav Todorović drew the design for Flags of the World on 18 September 2024 from a photograph located by William Garrison; that image is likewise a later rendering. ^[3]

Origin

Origin Type

first_documented_use

Physical Origin Status

unknown

First documented in Brooklyn, New York, on the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people, known as Lenapehoking. ^[6]

Indigenous land context

Lenape — ancestral homeland (Lenapehoking), at the site of first documented use (Indigenous name: Lenapehoking). The New York City Commission on Human Rights acknowledges "the land politically designated as New York City to be the homeland of the Lenape (Lenapehoking) who were violently displaced as a result of European settler colonialism over the course of 400 years," describes the Lenape as "a diasporic people that remain closely connected with this land and are its rightful stewards," and records that the city has one of the largest urban Native American and Indigenous populations in the United States. This entry records that context for the site of first documented use only; where the flag was designed is unknown. ^{[6] [6]}

Colonial / settler context

Land status

Colonized

Indigenous engagement

None documented

Continuing presence

Lenape diaspora communities in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Ontario and New Jersey; New York City has one of the largest urban Indigenous populations in the United States ^[6]

Where the design was made is not recorded. The designer sells from the United States, but no source states where she drew it. Its earliest documented appearance in public is Brooklyn, New York, on 28 October 2023, which is a place of use rather than of design. ^[1][2][3]

Dates & Chronology

Earliest located first-party record

December 18, 2020

Documented

By December 2020 to the present

Creation Bounds

The design existed by 18 December 2020, the date of the earliest located capture of Hannah Simpson's Etsy listing for it, which already describes it as an established design with an earlier variant behind it. ^[1] Simpson's own account places the work earlier still, and the listing's own text refers to a previous version she had replaced, but no record from before December 2020 has been located and no independent source fixes the year of design. A physical flag carrying the design was photographed at a rally in Brooklyn, New York on or about 28 October 2023, which is the earliest located record of the design flown in public. ^[2][3]

Sold as an enamel pin through Simpson's Etsy shop from at least December 2020, where a Palestine Pride category holding a single item appears in shop captures of October 2022 and January 2026. ^[1][7] A physical flag carrying the design was photographed at a rally in Brooklyn, New York on or about 28 October 2023; Flags of the World records the sighting from a photograph located by William Garrison, and a rendering of the design was posted to the r/QueerVexillology subreddit the same night. ^[3][2] No organization has been documented adopting it.

Major revisions

1. before 2020-12-18

   Simpson states that her original version placed the Palestinian colours in inverted order, green above black, and that she later made the standard order the main listing after buyers asked for it, keeping the earlier design on sale separately as a “vertically inverted” variant. ^[1]

Flags of the World's page records an earlier and different object: at a 2019 demonstration in Haifa by members of the Palestinian LGBTQ community, against homophobic violence and for Palestinian and Queer liberation, a rainbow flag was carried with a Palestinian flag attached across two of its stripes. Todorović examined the photographs and concluded the Palestinian flag “occupies a bit less than two stripes of the rainbow flag, is attached not quite symmetrically, and there is a fold which reveals that it was not stuck completely when it had been attached. Due to this last feature, perhaps this is not supposed to be considered a single flag with a new design.” The Haifa photographs are credited to Amir Levy. That object is not this design. ^[3]

Flags of the World cites, for the Brooklyn photograph, a website whose editorial position is hostile to the people the flag represents. This entry records the sighting and its date through Flags of the World and does not link that source.

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, Northwest Territories Gay Flag, Nova Scotia Gay Flag, Nunavut Gay Flag, Ontario Gay 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

Two components, only one of which has an entry here. The national flag of Palestine supplies the red hoist chevron and the black, white and green bands, which keep their usual order through the centre. The six-stripe Rainbow Pride Flag supplies the colours of the bands added above and below, each cut into wedges that repeat the chevron’s slope. The designer describes the work as weaving the rainbow into the traditional Arab colours; the later reconstructor names the same two sources for his redrawing. ^[1][2]

Simpson records one revision of her own: an earlier version placed the Palestinian colours in inverted order, green above black, which she says she chose in order to elevate future prosperity over present suffering. She replaced it as the main listing after buyers asked for the standard order, and kept the earlier design on sale separately. That earlier version is a variant within this design family rather than a separate lineage. ^[1]

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

Palestinian Gay Pride Flag

Colors & Symbolism

Simpson's listing gives the design's meaning in her own words, reading the Palestinian colours through Arab and Muslim tradition: the rainbow is woven “into traditional Arab colors that honor the submission to Islam (red), the suffering of humanity, particularly of queers who live in secrecy (black), the prosperity and vision for the future (green), and the peace and love of the Prophet Muhammad (white) that runs centrally through the design. The rainbow colors are tender and muted, evoking the hospitality of the arab muslim and christian households.” This is the designer's published statement rather than a community reading, and no independent source corroborates it. ^[1]

Read from the vector this entry publishes. No palette has been published for the design; these are the maker's chosen values.

This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.

Red chevron

Submission to Islam, in the designer's reading. ^[1]

Black band

The suffering of humanity, and particularly of Queer people living in secrecy, in the designer's reading. ^[1]

White band

The peace and love of the Prophet Muhammad, running centrally through the design, in the designer's reading. ^[1]

Green band

Prosperity and a vision for the future, in the designer's reading. ^[1]

Added rainbow stripes

Described by the designer as tender and muted, evoking the hospitality of Arab Muslim and Christian households. ^[1]

The reading above is the designer's own, published in a commercial listing alongside her political commentary. It is recorded here as her statement. How the flag was understood by the people who carried it in Brooklyn is not documented. The one documented public appearance was at a rally under the banner of Queer solidarity with Palestine, which is context for how the flag was used rather than a statement of what its parts mean.

No palette has been published for the design. Wardi's vector uses #009639 for the green, the value carried by the Wikimedia Commons file for the flag of Palestine that he names as his source; that is his choice, not a designer specification. ^[2] Simpson describes her rainbow colours only in words, as tender and muted. ^[1]

The table above was empty until 16 August 2026 and is now read from the vector itself. The black band carries no fill attribute in that file and so renders in the SVG default, black; it is recorded here as the value it paints rather than as a stated specification.

Design

Aspect Ratio

Not standardized

Ratio Notes

No ratio is published for the design. 22:15 and 2:1 are Wardi's two reconstructions, not the designer's specification, and the ratio of the flag photographed in Brooklyn is not securely measurable from the single available image. ^[2][3]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

5

Layout

horizontal bands with a hoist chevron and chevron-cut rainbow bands

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Rainbow band, cut into orange, yellow, green, blue and purple wedges from hoist to fly, Black, White, Green, Rainbow band, cut into orange, yellow, green, blue and purple wedges from hoist to fly

Additional Symbols

Red chevron at the hoist

Five horizontal bands of equal depth, each a fifth of the hoist. The middle three are the flag of Palestine's black, white and green. The top and bottom bands are each divided into five wedges in orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, running hoist to fly, whose leading edges are cut at the same slope as the red chevron at the hoist, so they read as chevrons nested behind it. The chevron's point reaches the middle of the flag. Measured from Wardi's vector. ^[2] The same five-band construction is visible in the photographed flag and in the designer’s enamel pin. ^[3][1]

No construction sheet by the designer has been located, and the proportions of the photographed flag cannot be measured reliably from the one available image. Two later reconstructions exist, both by Zack Wardi and both his own. The flag of Palestine is a horizontal tricolour at 2:1; his main version is 22:15 “because I added two more stripes of the same height and expanded the chevron keeping its aspect ratio.” He also drew an alternative at 2:1 “to keep the chevron occupying one third of width the flag,” which he thinks “is closer to the original design,” while noting that its rainbow parallelograms are then almost but not quite rhombi: one side measures 5.2 units against the other's 5. Neither ratio is a specification for the design itself. ^[2]

A red chevron at the hoist, its point reaching the centre of the flag, over five horizontal bands of equal depth. The middle three carry the flag of Palestine's black, white and green. The top and bottom bands each run orange, yellow, green, blue and purple from hoist to fly, divided by diagonals parallel to the chevron, so the rainbow reads as a series of chevrons behind the red one. Every colour of the six-stripe rainbow flag is present: red in the hoist chevron, the other five in the outer bands. Wardi's principal rendering is at 22:15; his alternative is at 2:1, the proportion of the flag of Palestine. ^[2]

Usage & Adoption

Geographic Usage

United States

Online Usage

Sold as an enamel pin through the Etsy shop ChangedMe, listed by 18 December 2020 and still carried in January 2026 ^[1][7], A rendering posted to the r/QueerVexillology subreddit on 29 October 2023 ^[2]

Event Usage

A rally in Brooklyn, New York, on or about 28 October 2023 ^[2][3]

Current Status

Commercially available; one documented case of public use

Two kinds of circulation are documented and they should not be added together. The designer has sold the design commercially since at least December 2020, which establishes availability and nothing more. ^[1] Separately, one case of public use is documented: a physical flag at a Brooklyn rally on or about 28 October 2023, recorded through a photograph located for Flags of the World and through a rendering posted to Reddit the same night. ^[2][3] No adopting organization has been identified, and the designer's statement that she sold a flag for that event has not been verified.

Image Archive

Later reconstructions

Documented use, 2023

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• Conflated with the rainbow flag carried at the 2019 Haifa demonstration, which was a Palestinian flag attached across two stripes of a rainbow flag rather than a single integrated design. ^[3]
• Wardi's 22:15 vector and Todorović's Flags of the World drawing are both reproduced as though they were the original artwork. Both are later reconstructions by people who did not design the flag, and their proportions are their own. ^[2][3]

The design reaches its readers through two settings that do not share a politics, and the record keeps them apart.

At the Brooklyn rally the flag was carried in a demonstration for Palestine, and the Reddit post that circulated it was captioned “Queers For Palestine”. Read there, it is a Palestinian LGBTQ solidarity flag. ^[2]

The designer's own published framing is different. Simpson's listing sets the design against Hamas, whom she holds responsible for Palestinian suffering, describes the pin as prompted by an exchange with someone who called her a Zionist, and closes: “Holding queer palestinians in our hearts, and doing what we can to elevate their stories, is an embodiment of Zionism.” She sells a companion pin combining the Israeli and Palestinian designs. ^[1]

No source records what the people who carried the flag in Brooklyn understood by it, or whether they knew where the design came from. The designer's framing is documented and hers; it does not establish how the flag was read by others.

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

hero image is a later reconstruction, not the designer's artwork

• Zack Wardi's 22:15 reconstruction, drawn after seeing the design in Brooklyn · Credit: Zack Wardi, CC0 1.0 · GitHub · verifiedRights Wardi released his vector under the CC0 1.0 Universal public-domain dedication, whose full text is in the repository. The dedication covers his drawing only. It does not reach the underlying design, which Simpson claims as copyrighted. ^[2][1] Rights information
• Wardi's alternative reconstruction at 2:1, drawn so the chevron occupies a third of the flag's width. He considers it closer to the design he saw in Brooklyn, and notes that its rainbow parallelograms fall just short of rhombi, one side measuring 5.2 units against the other's 5. ^[2] · Credit: Zack Wardi, CC0 1.0 · GitHub · CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)
• The design on a physical flag at a rally in Brooklyn, New York, on or about 28 October 2023. This is the earliest located photograph of the flag in public use. Flags of the World published it from a photograph located by William Garrison on 1 November 2023. ^[3] · Credit: Photographer not identified; located by William Garrison for Flags of the World · Flags of the World
• Tomislav Todorović's rendering for Flags of the World, 18 September 2024, drawn from the Brooklyn photograph. A later vexillological drawing, not the designer's artwork. ^[3] · Credit: Tomislav Todorović, Flags of the World · Flags of the World