The Lipstick Lesbian flag vs the Sunset Lesbian Flag
The first documented lesbian flag was created by Sean Campbell in 1999, but it fell out of popularity due to lesbian women's dissatisfaction with a man-made flag. Then came the Lipstick Lesbian Flag, which was created around 2010 by a blogger named Natalie McCray. The flag included seven stripes of hues of red and pink, and a lipstick mark on the left corner took over the popularity sometimes still used in media or merchandise during Pride Month. But people fail to realize that this flag comes with a lot of controversy and shouldn't be used to represent the lesbian community. The term “lipstick lesbian” comes from a very problematic past, as it can be traced back to the porn industry in the 1980s, where lesbians were sexualized for the heterosexual male fantasy of seeing two women having sex. It also excluded butch lesbians, etc. Also, there was a discovery of bigoted comments made by McCray on her deleted blog. Here comes the Sunset Lesbian Flag, which was created by a nonbinary lesbian named Emily Gwen in 2018, although sometimes the flag contains seven stripes which each having a meaning it sometimes shortens to just five to go along with the other designed LGBT+ flags.
- Dark orange: gender non-conformity
- Coral orange: independence
- Pale orange: community
- White stripe: unique relationships to womanhood
- Pinkish purple: serenity and peace
- Darker purple-pink: love and sex
- Deep magenta: femininity.
Although, these are the more popular flags used in media, flags continue to evolve to b more accepting of many different lesbians. It's important to show the evolution of flag designs because it documents the evolution of people itself, showcasing the importance of acceptance within the community and the wanting of acceptance in society as a whole.
