Straight Queer Pride Flag

Overview

To provide a pride symbol for people who identify as both straight and Queer, though the intended scope of the label varies across its multiple proposed flags.

The straight Queer pride flag was posted on August 27, 2018 by Mod AP (arco-pluris) of the Beyond MOGAI Pride Flags Tumblr blog. It was designed as a 5-striped flag with 'first colors for Queerness and last ones for straightness.' However, the concept of straight Queerness has a much longer and more contested history than the flag itself, with the term carrying distinct and sometimes contradictory meanings across decades and communities.

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

People who identify as both straight and Queer. This encompasses several distinct groups whose use of the label differs significantly. Trans, nonbinary, intersex, and a-spec people who are heterosexual in orientation use the label to name a genuine identity position. Cisgender heterosexual people who defy gender norms, practice non-monogamy or kink, or align strongly with Queer community and politics have also used the term. The label has additionally been used in academic masculinity studies to describe straight men whose gender presentation is perceived as Queer.

Subcommunity

Queer umbrella (contested)

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

The earliest flag was posted on August 27, 2018 by Mod AP (arco-pluris) of the Beyond MOGAI Pride Flags Tumblr blog, who described the colors as 'first colors for Queerness and last ones for straightness.' Mod AP also posted a 12-stripe heteroqueer flag on June 29, 2019. A 7-stripe heteroqueer flag by Gayer9000 appeared on December 16, 2020 (uploaded to LGBTA Wiki by Fandom user Homesick Moonstone, later reposted by Pride-Flags on DeviantArt on April 10, 2021). A queerhet flag by @kaestral was posted on Tumblr on March 18, 2021.

Origin

Digital Origin

true

Digital origin; no verified physical location.

Posted on Tumblr by Mod AP (arco-pluris) of Beyond MOGAI Pride Flags on August 27, 2018.

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2018

Exact date

August 27, 2018

First public use

August 27, 2018

Period in Use

2018-present

Multiple flag proposals exist, none widely adopted. The concept circulates primarily in online Queer communities, academic gender studies, and trans/nonbinary spaces. The @kaestral queerhet flag (2021) defined its scope as 'any straight person that also exists within the LGBT community,' including straight trans, nonbinary, intersex, a-spec, and split-attraction individuals.

Major revisions

1. 1972

   Earliest known print use: a zine titled Straightqueer. Content and context beyond the title are not well documented.

2. 1993

   Ann Powers used 'queer straight' to describe a straight person who passes as Queer in Queer spaces.

3. 1997

   Clyde Smith delivered a paper at a conference in Amsterdam using 'straight queer' as a positive self-identification.

4. 1997

   Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha used 'straight queer' pejoratively, describing someone who was conventionally gendered and monogamously partnered.

5. 2003

   Roberta Mock explored 'heteroqueer' in Feminist Review as straight women performing femininity through gay male aesthetics such as camp and drag.

6. 2003-05-06

   Tristan Taormino described the 'Queer Heterosexual' in The Village Voice as anyone straight-identified whose gender expression, relationship model, or community alignment placed them outside normative heterosexuality.

7. 2005

   Masculinity researcher Robert Heasley proposed a typology of 'queer masculinities of straight men' in Thinking Straight (Routledge), describing cisgender heterosexual men who do not conform to hegemonic masculinity. His categories included 'straight sissy boys,' 'social justice straight-queers,' 'elective straight-queers,' 'committed straight-queers,' and 'males living in the shadow of masculinity.'

8. 2009

   Academic studies documented partners of trans men using 'heteroqueer' to name relationships that were heterosexual but not normatively straight.

9. 2011

   Further trans partner studies documented 'heteroqueer' as a self-identification. One participant explained: 'I've been without my lesbian ID card for several years now, but I can't really call myself straight either... so heteroqueer seems to fit best.'

10. 2018-08-27

    Mod AP (arco-pluris) posted the first straight Queer pride flag on the Beyond MOGAI Pride Flags Tumblr blog, a 5-stripe design with 'first colors for Queerness and last ones for straightness.'

11. 2019-06-29

    Mod AP posted a 12-stripe heteroqueer flag design on Beyond MOGAI Pride Flags.

12. 2020-12-16

    Fandom user Homesick Moonstone uploaded a 7-stripe heteroqueer flag by Gayer9000 to LGBTA Wiki.

13. 2021-03-18

    Tumblr user @kaestral posted a queerhet flag with five desaturated stripes, defining queerhet as 'any straight person that also exists within the LGBT community,' including straight trans, nonbinary, intersex, a-spec, and split-attraction individuals.

The label has carried at least four documented uses across its history, and the four are not interchangeable.

(1) Trans, nonbinary, intersex, and a-spec people whose orientation is heterosexual. For a trans man partnered with a woman, 'straight' describes the orientation but does not describe how the relationship is read or treated. 'Heteroqueer' was used in this sense in trans-partner studies and trans community contexts in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

(2) Cisgender heterosexual people whose gender presentation, kink practice, polyamory, or community alignment falls outside hegemonic norms. Robert Heasley's 2005 typology of 'queer masculinities of straight men' formalized this use as an academic category.

(3) A 1990s journalistic use in which 'queer straight' described a heterosexual person who could pass as Queer in Queer spaces. Ann Powers used the phrase this way in 1993.

(4) A 1990s pejorative use, in which 'straight queer' described a Queer person who was conventionally gendered, monogamously partnered, and politically quiet. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha used the phrase this way in 1997.

Uses (3) and (4) describe opposing positions (a straight person passing as Queer versus a Queer person presenting as mainstream) and appeared in print within four years of each other.

Lineage

Indirect influences

Rainbow Pride Flag

Direct children

Straight Queer 12-Stripe Pride Flag, Straight Queer Pride Flag (Gayer9000), Queerhet Pride Flag (Kaestral)

Related flags

Straight Ally Pride Flag

The original Mod AP 2018 design has three documented variants in the database: a 12-stripe expansion by the same designer (straight-queer-12-stripe-2019), a 7-stripe simplification by Gayer9000 (straight-queer-gayer9000-2020), and a desaturated 5-stripe queerhet design by @kaestral (straight-queer-kaestral-2021). None has consolidated as canonical. The concept has points of overlap with the ally flag, though the intended meaning differs.

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 4 records across 2 generations.

This record

Straight Queer Pride Flag

Children

Straight Queer 12-Stripe Pride Flag, Straight Queer Pride Flag (Gayer9000), Queerhet Pride Flag (Kaestral)

Colors & Symbolism

The Mod AP version uses colors moving from Queerness to straightness across its stripes. Specific stripe color meanings for this version have not been published beyond the creator's note that the 'first colors [are] for Queerness and last ones for straightness.' The @kaestral queerhet version explicitly addresses straight trans, nonbinary, intersex, a-spec, and split-attraction people.

Scourgeface 2021 version. Approximated from common pride flag color references; no creator-issued hex.

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

Multiple proposed flag designs carry different color schemes and meanings. The flag_version field on each stripe meaning indicates which proposal it belongs to. The Mod AP version (2018) provides only a gradient concept ('first colors for Queerness, last ones for straightness') without per-stripe meanings. The Scourgeface version (2021) assigns specific identity meanings to each stripe. The kaestral version (2021) defines the flag's scope broadly as 'any straight person that also exists within the LGBT community' without per-stripe symbolism.

No creator-issued hex values have been published for any version. The hex codes listed for the Scourgeface 2021 six-stripe version are approximations drawn from common pride flag color references for the named colors (lavender for trans, pink for binary women, yellow for nonbinary, green for aromantic-spectrum, blue for binary men, purple for asexual-spectrum), and should be treated as provisional. The Mod AP 2018 and @kaestral 2021 versions use different color schemes and would need separate sampling. Exact values for any version should be verified against the original Tumblr posts where possible.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:2

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

5

Layout

horizontal stripes

Five horizontal stripes. Exact colors are unverified pending the original Tumblr post.

Multiple proposed designs exist. The earliest is a 5-striped horizontal flag posted by Mod AP (arco-pluris) on August 27, 2018, with colors gradient from Queerness to straightness. Mod AP also posted a 12-stripe heteroqueer flag (June 2019). A 7-stripe heteroqueer flag by Gayer9000 appeared in December 2020. The @kaestral queerhet flag (March 2021) uses five desaturated stripes in cyan/blue, green, greenish-gray, yellow, and reddish-orange. If any variant achieves sufficient independent traction, it may warrant a separate entry.

Usage & Adoption

First Users

Online Queer communities, Trans and nonbinary people in heterosexual relationships, Academic gender and masculinity studies

Online Usage

Tumblr, LGBTQIA+ identity wikis, DeviantArt

Current Status

active

Limited adoption. Multiple proposed flag designs exist, none widely established. The contested nature of the identity concept affects uptake.

Discourse & Debates

• The central tension is that 'straight Queer' has been used to describe genuinely different populations. For trans, nonbinary, intersex, and a-spec people who are heterosexual, the label names a real identity that existing orientation labels do not capture. For cisgender heterosexual people, it may describe gender nonconformity, alternative relationship structures, or strong Queer community alignment, but the legitimacy of claiming Queerness in these cases is disputed.
• Robert Heasley's 2005 typology of 'queer masculinities of straight men' describes cisgender heterosexual men who do not conform to hegemonic masculinity, including 'straight sissy boys,' 'social justice straight-queers,' 'elective straight-queers,' and 'committed straight-queers.' This framing treats Queerness as a quality of gender presentation and social positioning rather than of sexual orientation.
• In trans community contexts, partners of trans men have used 'heteroqueer' to describe relationships that are heterosexual but not normatively straight. One participant in a 2011 study explained: 'I've been without my lesbian ID card for several years now, but I can't really call myself straight either... so heteroqueer seems to fit best.'
• Some individuals prefer 'heteroqueer' to 'straight Queer' because it separates heterosexuality as an orientation from broader connotations of straightness as normativity.

Common confusions

• The term has carried opposite meanings in different contexts: Ann Powers (1993) used 'queer straight' to mean a straight person passing as Queer, while Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (1997) used 'straight queer' pejoratively to describe a conventionally gendered Queer person.
• Straight Queer should not be confused with the straight ally concept, though there is overlap in some use cases. For trans, nonbinary, and a-spec people who are heterosexual, it is an identity label, not an allyship label.

Criticisms

• Some Queer community members argue that cisgender heterosexual people should not identify as Queer at all, on the grounds that Queerness is defined by non-heterosexual orientation, non-cisgender identity, or both. This position appears recurrently in trans community writing and in Queer-of-color writing on the politics of the reclaimed term. ^[1]
• When cisgender straight people use 'Queer,' a term reclaimed from a slur, the word can lose the political charge that the reclamation was meant to carry. This is one of the standard objections to the cis-het use of the label. ^[1]
• The label can flatten meaningful internal differences. The trans-partner heteroqueer use and the cis-het gender-noncon use describe different situations, and a single flag treats them as interchangeable when they are not.

The terms may be rendered with or without a space or hyphen, with the order swapped, or with varying capitalization: straightqueer, straight-queer, queer straight, queer heterosexual, heteroqueer, queerhet. The earliest known print use is a 1972 zine titled Straightqueer.

Editorial note

The label has stayed contested because the same compound word covers populations whose situations are not the same. Trans, nonbinary, intersex, and a-spec people whose orientation is heterosexual use it to name a position the standard orientation labels do not name. Cisgender heterosexual people whose gender presentation, kink practice, polyamory, or community alignment falls outside hegemonic norms have also used it. Both uses are documented in the source list. They are not the same use.

The argument that cisgender heterosexual people should not claim 'Queer' at all is a long-standing position in trans community discourse and in Queer-of-color writing. The database does not try to quantify how widely it is held, only to note that it is a serious and recurring position rather than a marginal one. ^[1]

This entry treats the trans and nonbinary heteroqueer use as a real identity claim with sustained community uptake in trans-partner contexts. It treats the cis-het gender-noncon use as documented but more contested. It does not promote any of the four flag proposals (Mod AP 2018, Mod AP 12-stripe 2019, Gayer9000 2020, kaestral 2021) to canonical, because none has meaningful adoption.

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Mod AP 2018 version (earliest)