Polysexual Pride Flag

Overview

Samlin, writing as "a poly individual," was saddened that polysexual people lacked a flag and made one, modelled on the bisexual and pansexual flags. ^[1]

The Fuck Yeah Polysexuality Tumblr blog published the flag on 24 June 2012: a pink, green and blue flag image above a post signed "Samlin." ^{[1] [2]} The post opened, "I, as a poly individual, was greatly saddened by the fact that we don't have a flag…so I made one :P", and named the bisexual and pansexual flags as its models, placing all three within a multisexual umbrella. ^[1] It does not assign meanings or digital values to the individual colours; those explanations were supplied by later reference guides. ^{[1] [3] [5]}

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

polysexual

Subcommunity

multisexual umbrella / bi+ spectrum (community framing)

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

The post introducing the flag is signed "Samlin" and was published through the Fuck Yeah Polysexuality Tumblr blog; the surviving record does not establish whether Samlin operated the blog or contributed the design to it. ^[1] The reference works credit Samlin, while the LGBTQIA+ Wiki credits the blog's name instead. ^{[5] [3] [6] [7] [8]}

Origin

Digital Origin

Yes

Digital publication on Tumblr. No geographic place of creation is documented, so Indigenous land and settler context cannot be assigned.

Published through the Fuck Yeah Polysexuality Tumblr blog. No geographic place of creation has been documented. ^[1]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2012

First published

June 24, 2012

Period in Use

2012–present

Creation Bounds

Made in 2012, on or before the 24 June publication. ^[2]

The ohyeahpolysexual blog reblogged the post on 11 July 2012, and reference pages that assign that date to the flag's introduction inherited the reblog's date rather than the root post's. ^{[10] [2] [3] [6]} McLennonSon uploaded an SVG recreation to Wikimedia Commons on 6 February 2015. ^[11] The earliest physical use in the located source trail is the Chicago Pride Parade of 25 June 2017. ^{[3] [4]} By 5 June 2018 the flag had been photographed among pride flags displayed on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv; ^[12] it appeared at Stonewall Columbus Pride on 15 June 2019, ^[13] at Christopher Street Day in Berlin on 27 July 2019 with oversized bisexual and pansexual flags, ^{[14] [9] [3]} and at Manchester Pride on 24 August 2019. ^[15] Flags of the World's assessment in May 2020 was that online circulation considerably exceeded the physical examples it had located, ^[3] and institutional glossaries at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia list the flag. ^{[6] [7]}

The flag is also used for polyromantic identity, its romantic counterpart under the split attraction model; dedicated polyromantic designs, including a 2020 alternative in lighter shades, are less widely adopted. ^[16]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Bisexual Pride Flag, Pansexual Pride Flag

Direct children

Polyromantic Alternative Pride Flag (2020)

Related flags

Multisexual Pride Flag (Synp attribution, 2019)

Sibling flags

Biromantic Asexual Pride Flag (Nikki, 2022), Biromantic Pride Flag (Grey Heart, 2016), Biromantic Pride Flag (Centered Heart, 2016), Bisexual Ally Flag, Chicago Bisexual Pride, Chicago Pansexual Pride

+ 7 more

Demibisexual Pride Flag (2016, Pride-Flags), Demipansexual Pride Flag (2016, Pride-Flags), Heteroflexible Pride Flag (Crimson, 2024), Homoflexible Pride Flag (Crimson, 2024), Jewish Pansexuality Pride Flag, Panromantic Pride Flag, Pansexual Pride Flag Redesign (Jesse Gunslinger)

Samlin named the bisexual and pansexual flags as the design's models. ^[1] The three equal stripes are structurally closer to the pansexual flag, and Flags of the World reads the design as "modelled after the flags representing bisexuality and pansexuality, clearly borrowing the shades of pink and blue from the latter of those." ^[3] No source supports a more exact division of inherited elements, and Samlin named no other model; beyond its two named models the design shares only the striped idiom common to Pride flags.

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 4 records across 3 generations.

Ancestor

Bisexual Pride Flag, Pansexual Pride Flag

This record

Polysexual Pride Flag

Children

Polyromantic Alternative Pride Flag (2020)

Colors & Symbolism

Samlin's post assigns no colour meanings; the design is modelled on the bisexual and pansexual flags. ^[1]

Working values sampled from the preserved 2012 Tumblr source image. ^[1]

The associations in the table were supplied by later reference guides, which state them as attraction to women, to men and to nonbinary people. ^{[3] [6] [7] [8]} Library.LGBT alone abstracts pink and blue to femininity and masculinity. ^[5]

Working values are sampled from the preserved 2012 Tumblr JPEG; Samlin did not publish a separate digital palette, and the values are not a manufacturing standard. ^[1] The Wikimedia Commons SVG embeds #F61CB9, #07D569 and #1C92F6, and Library.LGBT's later reference guide gives #F51BB8, #07D569 and #1C92F6; the three sets differ only in the pink. ^{[11] [5]}

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Ratio Notes

3:5 is the archive's practical reference reconstruction; no creator-specified overall ratio survives. Samlin's preserved Tumblr source image is retained separately at its 1000 × 750 pixel canvas. ^[1]

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

3

Layout

horizontal_stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Pink, Green, Blue

Three equal horizontal stripes, pink above green above blue, spanning the full field without an emblem, canton, border or charge. ^{[1] [3]}

Usage & Adoption

Geographic Usage

United States (Chicago 2017; Columbus, Ohio 2019) ^{[3] [4] [13]}, Israel (Tel Aviv, by June 2018) ^[12], Germany (Berlin, 2019) ^{[14] [9] [3]}, United Kingdom (Manchester, 2019) ^[15]

Online Usage

Tumblr, where the flag was published on 24 June 2012 and reblogged from July 2012 ^{[1] [10] [2]}, Wikimedia Commons, from February 2015 ^[11], Institutional pride flag guides including UCSB and the University of British Columbia ^{[6] [7]}

Event Usage

Chicago Pride Parade, 25 June 2017, the earliest physical use in the located source trail ^{[3] [4]}, Pride flag display on Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv, documented by 5 June 2018 ^{[12] [3]}, Stonewall Columbus Pride, 15 June 2019 ^[13], Christopher Street Day, Berlin, 27 July 2019, carried with oversized bisexual and pansexual flags ^{[14] [9] [3]}, Manchester Pride, 24 August 2019 ^[15]

Current Status

active

Flags of the World's assessment in May 2020 was that online circulation considerably exceeded the physical examples it had located: "the examples from real life are still very few." ^[3] Independent adoption is documented through physical appearances and institutional flag guides. ^{[6] [7]}

Image Archive

Original Source and Reconstructions

Documented Use

Related Polysexual Symbols

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• Polysexuality concerns attraction to multiple genders, often though not necessarily all; polyamory concerns the structure of relationships. A person may identify with either, both or neither, and the flags are unrelated. ^[8]
• The design is sometimes credited to the blog it appeared on, Fuck Yeah Polysexuality, rather than to Samlin, whose name signs the post. ^{[8] [1]}
• The 11 July 2012 date in general circulation is the reblog's date; the root post was published 24 June 2012. ^{[10] [2]}

"Polysexuality flag" is Flags of the World's name for the flag. ^[3] The identity is also spelled plysexual or polisexual and shortened to ply; lgbtqia.wiki gives polyromantic as the romantic counterpart. ^{[8] [16]}

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

three-stripe standard

• Credit: Design by Samlin · Samlin's 2012 Tumblr post, preserved in the surviving reblog
• The flag image attached to the post that introduced the design, published through the Fuck Yeah Polysexuality Tumblr blog on 24 June 2012 and preserved in the surviving reblog. Its 1000 × 750 canvas documents the source post rather than an intended manufacturing ratio; the archive's working colour values are sampled from this file. ^{[1] [2]} · Credit: Design and source image credited to Samlin · TumblrRights Creator-stated invitation to use; no named licence.
• The Wikimedia Commons SVG recreation, uploaded by McLennonSon on 6 February 2015 and given its current 800 × 480 geometry in Keymap9's 2018 revision. Its embedded values differ from the source image only in the pink. Neither contributor designed the flag. ^[11] · Credit: SVG file by McLennonSon; ratio revision by Keymap9 · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (Commons, threshold of originality)
• Christopher Street Day, Berlin, 27 July 2019. The Polysexual Pride Flag is carried at the left, under an oversized bisexual flag, with a pansexual flag among the marchers behind. ^{[9] [3]} · Credit: Leonhard Lenz · Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
• The same march from the crowd: polysexual, bisexual and pansexual flags carried together, with the parade route behind. ^{[14] [3]} · Credit: Leonhard Lenz · Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
• The BiBerlin contingent at the same march. The banner's logo reads "non-mono bi+ pan ply"; a pansexual flag is carried at the right and the polysexual flag, partly furled, at the centre distance. ^[17] · Credit: Leonhard Lenz · Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
• Archive-standardized reconstruction after Samlin's preserved 2012 source image, at the archive's 3:5 reference proportions with colour values sampled from that file. · Credit: Design by Samlin; archive-standardized rendering
• The ply symbol, a later polysexual identity symbol credited by lgbtqia.wiki to the Tumblr account system-lgbt. It is not part of Samlin's 2012 flag and is used beside it rather than on it. ^{[16] [18]} · Credit: system-lgbt, via lgbtqia.wiki · lgbtqia.wikiRights No licence is stated by the symbol's maker; rights undetermined.