Lipstick Lesbian Flag

History

The Lipstick Lesbian Flag was created by blogger Natalie McCray around 2010 and posted to her blog 'This Lesbian Life.' It was one of the first widely-circulated lesbian-specific flags and was intended to represent femme or high-femme lesbians who felt invisible under more gender-neutral pride imagery. However, McCray's blog also contained posts widely criticised as biphobic and transphobic, which led many communities to distance themselves from the flag by the mid-2010s. The basic colour palette (without the lipstick) was retained and revised by Emily Gwen for the 2018 lesbian pride flag, which has largely replaced it in mainstream use.

Colors

dark pink, medium pink, light pink, white, light red, red, dark red

The red-to-pink palette emphasises femininity; the lipstick mark in the corner is a direct nod to femme lesbian identity.

Symbols

lipstick mark

Signifies femme presentation and deliberately claims a traditionally feminine symbol as a mark of lesbian identity.