Tricolor Polyamorous Pride Flag
Identity Pride Flag ·
A redesigned polyamorous pride flag selected through a community vote of 30,827 people in November 2022, organized by the PolyamProud volunteer coalition. Designed by Red Howell, it features three horizontal stripes (blue, magenta, dark purple) with a white chevron on the hoist side containing a gold heart, representing possibility, desire, openness, perseverance, and community. [1][2]
Key facts
- Designer
- Red Howell
- Created
- Publicly presented as a voting finalist
- Documented
- November 2022 to the present
- Aspect Ratio
- 128:77 · source file
- Ratio Notes
- No ratio is published. The source SVG carried by Wikimedia Commons renders at 512 by 308, which is exactly 128:77, about 1.662:1. [3] That is close to 5:3 but not equal to it, so the design is recorded at its own proportion rather than normalised. The raster in the Image Archive is 1280 by 770, the same 128:77.
- Stripes
- 3
- Represented Identity
- polyamorous and non-monogamous
Also known as
- Tricolor Polyamory Pride Flag
Status Canonical
Archive categories Sexual & Romantic Orientation Pride Flags
Overview
To replace the 1995 polyamorous pride flag through a transparent, community-governed process that would produce a design with broader representational reach and stronger vexillological qualities. [1][4]
The PolyamProud volunteer coalition launched a campaign in May 2021 to create a new polyamorous pride flag through a structured, community-driven process. Professional designers and researchers collected existing polyamory symbols as a starting point. PolyamProud set 25 August 2022 as the deadline for design submissions from the public and capped the public shortlist at no more than six designs. [5] By spring 2022, a committee of 30 advisors reviewed 15 candidate designs. A smaller committee of 7 (originally planned as 11) along with 20+ advisors narrowed the field to 4 finalists. Four designs reached the public vote: in final rank order, the tricolor, Heart Continuum, Tetracor and Wide Band. [1] Public instant-runoff voting ran from November 1 to 22, 2022, with 30,827 people casting votes. The tricolor won the final round with 15,636 votes to Heart Continuum's 14,843, a margin of 793. [1][2] Email verification and bot filtering were used to ensure vote integrity. Results were announced on November 23, 2022, which is observed as Polyamory Day. [1][4][5]
Sixteen advisors were named publicly, among a larger group who did not all consent to being identified; they include Dr. Elisabeth Sheff, Justin Clardy PhD, Leanne Yau, Gabrielle Alexa, Gregory Engels, Kim Kinnear and Julio César Pérez Jerez. [5] Design assessment was guided by the North American Vexillological Association's (NAVA) Good Flag Bad Flag principles. [5] Kristian Einstman, PolyamProud's director and co-founder, describes a committee of seven who came together online from Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, India, the Netherlands and the United States, working for a year and a half, and says it was important to include voices from "outside the English speaking, white colonial world": materials were translated and "people from more than 50 countries voted". The committee did not design the winner; it narrowed the field to ten and then to four. Einstman, a graphic designer and writer in Chicago who identifies as "primarily poly, otherwise bisexual", gives the reason for replacing the 1995 flag generously: it "was initially designed to be a furtive shibboleth, recognizable only to those who were familiar with the community", which "at the time, in the mid-1990s, that was clearly what was needed." [6]
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- polyamorous and non-monogamous
- Subcommunity
- non-monogamous / relationship style
- Movement
- polyamorous visibility, non-monogamous community building
- Racial / Ethnic Context
- The purple stripe explicitly acknowledges that today's non-monogamous community 'includes and was preceded by People of the Global Majority.' [2]
The flag explicitly includes asexual spectrum, aromantic spectrum, Queerplatonic, tertiary, and alterous relationships within its definition of non-monogamy. [2]
Creators
The Creator
Red Howell
Designer
Red Howell designed the winning entry and submitted it to PolyamProud's open call. Very little biographical information is publicly available, and Howell did not respond to press inquiries after the announcement of the winning design. [6]
Attribution
- Organization
- PolyamProud
Attribution notes
Red Howell designed the flag and submitted it to the selection process. PolyamProud states it "was created in 2022 by Red Howell, who submitted it to polyamproud's team of volunteers ahead of the selection committee deliberation and voting periods", which describes an open submission rather than a commission. [1] The organisation ran the process: it invited designs from the public until 25 August 2022, had a committee narrow the field, and put four finalists to an instant-runoff vote. [5]
No first-person statement from Howell has been located in the sources used here. Every published account of the flag's meaning is in PolyamProud's institutional voice, and the Bay Area Reporter records that "Howell did not return a message seeking comment." [6] A multimedia designer named Red Howell, trading as Son of Brutalism, is based in London and describes a background in graphic design and Fine Art; the site never mentions this flag, so the identification is unconfirmed and no biography is drawn from it here. [7]
Origin
- Place Type
- community design competition / digital dissemination
- Digital Origin
- Yes
No verified physical origin location. The flag was selected through an online community process. Without a confirmed location, Indigenous land context cannot be attributed.
The flag was selected through PolyamProud's online community vote. No specific geographic origin has been documented for the design itself. [1][5]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- Publicly presented as a voting finalist
- Documented
- November 2022 to the present
- Creation Bounds
- PolyamProud states the design "was created in 2022 by Red Howell, who submitted it to polyamproud's team of volunteers ahead of the selection committee deliberation and voting periods." [1] The sequence is documented. Public submissions closed on 25 August 2022; a committee narrowed ten designs to four. [5][8] Voting opened at 00:00 UTC on 1 November 2022, and the four finalists were put before voters from that moment, so the winning design was publicly presented by then. [5] Voting ran to 22 November. The winner was announced on 23 November, Polyamory Day. [9] The Wikimedia Commons copy was uploaded at 08:49 UTC that same day. [3] PolyamProud published its results article, with the full round-by-round breakdown, on 12 December 2022. [1] The Bay Area Reporter, writing on 20 December, describes results as "announced December 12", which matches the date of that retrospective article rather than a second launch. [6] The Commons file page gives 2022-10-30 as the date of the work. That value was entered through the Commons record rather than supplied by Howell or PolyamProud, and the first-party material establishes only that the design existed by the finalist voting period. [3]
The flag was announced on Polyamory Day, 23 November 2022. [1] Alan MacRobert, writing while the vote was still open, gives the same date in advance: the vote closed Tuesday the 22nd and "The winner will be announced this Wednesday the 23rd, Polyamory Day." [9] PolyamProud's flag page presents the result in one line: "30,827 polyamorous people voted for a new flag. this is the design they chose." [2] The Bay Area Reporter is cited for a formal reveal on 12 December 2022; that article could not be read for this entry, so the discrepancy stands unresolved and the November date is the one two readable sources agree on. [6] The design gained rapid online traction after the results were published, and HRC included it on its Pride Flags resource page. [10]
Most pride flags are made by individual designers and taken up organically. This one was selected through a structured process with public voting, vexillological review criteria and a stated effort to include perspectives from across the non-monogamous community. PolyamProud is an independent, not-for-profit, volunteer-run organization that received fewer than $500 USD in total donations throughout the process. [5]
The flag is released under a Creative Commons license reflecting the organizers' stated position that 'any polyamorous or non-monogamous pride flag should be owned by the public and free to use by anyone in any way, forever.' [5] Einstman is explicit that the redesign was not meant as a rebuke: "there are people who have fond feelings for the older flags, but this take was never intended to rebuke the efforts of others who came before us. The Jim Evans flag, and similar iterations, have helped the non-monogamous community unite and connect over the past 20-30 years. And we believe that we should always be questioning where our symbols come from and what they represent." [6]
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Polyamorous Pride Flag
- Direct children
- Jewish Polyamory Pride Flag
Succeeds the 1995 polyamorous pride flag designed by Jim Evans, and PolyamProud positioned it as a community-selected replacement. The relationship is stated by the designer's own account of the brief: "a contemporary approach to traditional vexillological elements from the original 'Pi' flag," taking "the best of the original flag, including its color symbolism," and improving "on those elements of the Pi flag which alienated viewers." [2] Only the blue carries a meaning forward intact, openness and honesty; the composition is new. The infinity heart, the symbol most associated with polyamory by 2022 and the basis of the 2016 Monroe and 2019 Essex flags, was excluded by a committee vote of 5 to 2. [8]
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 3 records across 3 generations.
- Ancestor
- Polyamorous Pride Flag
- This record
- Tricolor Polyamorous Pride Flag
- Children
- Jewish Polyamory Pride Flag
Colors & Symbolism
A flag for the polyamorous and wider non-monogamous community. PolyamProud states its scope of inclusion explicitly: the flag and the community "include, acknowledge, and fiercely advocate for a breadth of love and relationship styles and identities, the asexual spectrum & aromantic spectrum, as well as queerplatonic, tertiary, and otherwise alterous relationships absolutely among them." The chevron sits asymmetrically "to reflect the non-traditional style of polyamorous relationships," and the heart inside it "reminds us that love in all forms is the core of non-monogamy." [2]
| Colour | Hex | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | #009FE3 | Openness and honesty, "just like in the original Pi flag." PolyamProud: "Openness and honesty are core values in healthy relationships. We strive to be open and honest with our partners as well as with ourselves." The page attaches a second reading to the same color: "many in our community don't have the privilege to practice their non-monogamy openly," and the blue also stands for hope of "a safer and more welcoming future where every one of us can be open and honest about their polyamorous practice, identity, or orientation." [2] |
| Magenta | #E50051 | Desire, love and attraction. PolyamProud: "Slightly shifted from the red in the original flag, this design's magenta includes the addition of desire, which in many cases can be experienced without love nor attraction." The page ties the addition to a stated scope of inclusion covering "the asexual spectrum & aromantic spectrum, as well as queerplatonic, tertiary, and otherwise alterous relationships." [2] |
| Dark Purple | #340C46 | A united non-monogamous community. PolyamProud: "Today's non-monogamous community includes and was preceded by People of the Global Majority—Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color—whose cultural practices of non-monogamy were and have been historically unacknowledged, suppressed, ridiculed, or erased." A united community, the page continues, "actively champions and holds space in abundance for the people of diverse intersectional races, ethnicities, sexualities, and genders who share in the non-monogamous experience." [2] |
| White | #FFFFFF | Possibility. PolyamProud: "The chevron's white represents possibility—the blank canvas upon which every non-monogamous person creates and develops their individual relationships. possibility also signals hope for the future of the polyamorous and non-monogamous community." [2] |
| Gold | #FCBF00 | Energy and perseverance. PolyamProud: "Perseverance is courageous action in the face of adversity. This might look like persevering in your freedom to have multiple relationships. It may also include standing firm in who you are against cultural structures which oppress and suppress your right to live and love as you see fit." Of the heart itself: it "reminds us that love in all forms is the core of non-monogamy." [2] |
PolyamProud official, confirmed via Wikidata Q120835367 [2][11]
- Chevron shape and asymmetric position
- Growth and progress. The chevron "points toward the opposite end of the flag, a symbol of growth and progress, and sits asymmetrically on the flag to reflect the non-traditional style of polyamorous relationships." [2]
Every color and symbol meaning here comes from PolyamProud's official flag page, quoted rather than paraphrased. [2] Blue's openness and honesty is the one meaning the page states is carried over from the 1995 Pi flag. Wikidata Q120835367 restates the same scheme but glosses purple as "solidarity" and gold as "grit," neither of which appears in PolyamProud's text; it cites the flag page as its source, so it is a restatement rather than a second witness. [11]
Official hex values are published by PolyamProud and cross-confirmed via the Wikidata entry (Q120835367). [2][11] PolyamProud publishes each colour in hex, RGB and CMYK; the CMYK values are not recorded here. [2]
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 128:77 · source file
- Ratio Notes
- No ratio is published. The source SVG carried by Wikimedia Commons renders at 512 by 308, which is exactly 128:77, about 1.662:1. [3] That is close to 5:3 but not equal to it, so the design is recorded at its own proportion rather than normalised. The raster in the Image Archive is 1280 by 770, the same 128:77.
- Orientation
- horizontal stripes with hoist-side chevron
- Stripe Count
- 3
- Layout
- horizontal stripes with chevron and heart symbol
- Stripes (Top → Bottom)
- Blue, Magenta, Dark Purple
- Additional Symbols
- White chevron on hoist side pointing outward, Gold heart inside chevron
The chevron points toward the fly and sits asymmetrically on the vertical plane rather than centred, which PolyamProud describes as deliberate, reflecting "the non-traditional style of polyamorous relationships." [1][2]
Three horizontal stripes of equal width, blue over magenta over dark purple. A white chevron originates at the hoist and points toward the fly, with a gold heart inside it. Neither PolyamProud's flag page nor its results post states stripe proportions; the equal thirds are measured from the artwork. [2][3]
Three horizontal stripes (blue on top, magenta in the center, dark purple on the bottom) with a white chevron on the hoist side pointing outward. A gold heart sits inside the chevron. The chevron's position is asymmetric, a deliberate departure from centered or symmetrical flag layouts.
Usage & Adoption
- First Users
- PolyamProud and polyamorous community members following the November 2022 vote
- Organizations
- PolyamProud, HRC (listed on Pride Flags resource page)
- Geographic Usage
- International / online-first adoption
- Current Status
- Community-selected winner in wide current circulation
Adoption began immediately: Flags for Good listed the design for preorder within hours of the result, and PolyamProud reported creators applying it in illustrations, designs and crafts within weeks. [1] HRC lists it on its Pride Flags resource page. [10] The organisers did not claim the power to settle the matter. Their FAQ says that "whether the non-monogamous and polyamorous community adopts the flag we've produced is up to them", and that their work "doesn't entitle us to make decisions for this community". [5] The vote count is the organiser's own and was not independently audited. [1]
Image Archive
Renderings
Discourse & Debates
Common misidentifications
- Sometimes confused with the 1995 polyamorous pride flag by Jim Evans, which uses a different color scheme and features a pi symbol rather than a heart and chevron
PolyamProud's results article names the winning design the "tricolor polyamorous pride flag", which is the title used here. [1] The Wikimedia Commons file is titled "Tricolor Polyamory Pride Flag". [3] Informal descriptions such as "the new polyamory flag" appear in coverage but are not titles given to the design by any source.
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 13 sources
- 1. Official The Surprising Result of the Vote for a New Polyamorous Pride Flag. PolyamProud. PolyamProud (2022-12-12). Accessed 2026-03-30 · Archived version
- 2. Official Flag. PolyamProud. PolyamProud. Accessed 2026-03-30 · Archived version
The publisher's flag page: the attribution to Red Howell, the sentence giving the design to the public, the published palette in hex, RGB and CMYK, and the colour and symbol meanings. The domain has since lapsed and the page survives only in the Internet Archive.
- 3. Image file page File:Tricolor Polyamory Pride Flag.svg. Red Howell. Wikimedia Commons (2022-10-30). Accessed 2026-03-30
The Commons file: Red Howell named as author, the source given as PolyamProud's flag page, the full symbolism text reproduced, a stated work date of 2022-10-30 entered by the uploader, and the file history that shows who applied the CC0 tag and the quoted waiver, and when.
- 4. Official The Home Stretch: An Update on the Process to Choose a New Polyamorous Pride Flag. Dee Morgan. PolyamProud (2022-07-09). Accessed 2026-03-30 · Archived version
- 5. Official FAQ. PolyamProud. PolyamProud. Accessed 2026-03-30 · Archived version
- 6. News LGBTQ Agenda: New polyamorous flag is revealed. Eric Burkett. Bay Area Reporter (2022-12-20). Accessed 2026-08-16
The only conventional journalism located on this flag. Interviews Kristian Einstman of PolyamProud on the process, the committee and the public-domain decision; reports that Red Howell did not respond to a request for comment; and gives 12 December as the date results were announced.
- 7. Designer page Son of Brutalism. Red Howell. sonofbrut.uk. Accessed 2026-08-16
The site of a London multimedia designer named Red Howell. Cited only to record that the name resolves to a working designer; the site does not mention this flag and the identification is not confirmed.
- 8. Answering Some Questions About the Vote for a New Polyamory Flag. Dee Morgan. PolyamProud (2022-11-20). Accessed 2026-07-29 · Archived version
- 9. Blogs & Personal Sources Voting for a new polyamory flag passes 28,000. New book on poly history, a multi-relationshipping workbook.... Alan M. (Alan MacRobert). Polyamory in the News (2022-11). Accessed 2026-03-30
Written while the vote was still open, and the source for the announcement date: the vote closed Tuesday 22 November and "The winner will be announced this Wednesday the 23rd, Polyamory Day."
- 10. Organizations LGBTQ+ Pride Flags. Human Rights Campaign. Accessed 2026-03-30
- 11. Reference Wikidata entry Q120835367. Wikidata. Accessed 2026-03-30
- Blogs & Personal Sources Celebrating the New Polyamory Pride Flag. Discovering Polyamory. Accessed 2026-03-30
- our mission. PolyamProud. PolyamProud. Accessed 2026-07-29 · Archived version
Image Sources
- Rendering
- The SVG linked from the publisher's flag page
- The flag as published by PolyamProud, rendered from the source SVG at 1280 by 770, the same 128:77 proportion as the 512 by 308 original. · Credit: Red Howell, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons