The Labrys Flag

“What’s the labrys flag?”

The labrys flag is the oldest lesbian flag. The labrys symbol (the axe) was used by the lesbian feminist movement in the 70′s, and in 1999 a gay male graphic designer named Sean Campbell put it with the triangle and the color purple, since all three have historical significance in the lesbian community.

“So it was made by a man? Shouldn’t lesbian flags be made by lesbians?”

Not necessarily? Remember this flag is 22 years old and the labrys itself is much older as a lesbian symbol. Plus, there are many edits/redesigns that were made by lesbians recently.

“Hey! But isn’t the labrys flag a TERF flag?”

It absolutely is not! The labrys flag is for all lesbians, including trans lesbians and those who support them!

“Isn’t the triangle holocaust imagery?”

It was one of the symbols used to target Rromani people, homeless people, disabled people, sex workers, gentiles who were in relationships with Jews, pacifists, lesbians, and other things deemed “asocial” by the Nazis. It’s been adopted by different human rights / social justice movements to symbolize the fight against oppression, including disability rights and 70’s-onward lesbian feminism.

People are right to be uncomfortable using the labrys flag that has the triangle, so there are edits that include other things or just have the labrys symbol by itself.

“I think it’s ugly!”

Good for you! Don’t use it then. This is not meant to be the official lesbian flag, is it simply one that many lesbians prefer to use for themselves for a variety of reasons. Keep your negative opinions to yourself.

Here are some of the wonderfully diverse labrys edits I have seen:

Sources under the cut:

I'm planning on using the labrys flag for something, but i don't really want to include the triangle on the flag purely because i know that some people don't like its inclusion, and/or think it's Nazi imagery.

I'm just wondering: do you think if i replaced the triangle with a stripe that it would be received better or worse? or should i just not bother and keep it with the triangle?

Again, it's alright if you don't reply to this, i know you don't use tumblr much and im not really expecting or demanding a response either, I'm just kinda making a shot in the dark here.

It's a hard time to be trans right now. Part of me takes some comfort in the fact that two entire terfs I knew IRL have changed their minds on a number of trans topics purely because of the conservative crusade going on in the US. Basically, "so why are the main people I see making these points also saying that I'm killing babies by advocating for abortion and trying to ban pride parades?"

It's really, really hard not to see the sometimes word-for-word repetition of homophobic language from the 20th century being used on trans people. Protect the children, protect the children, protect the children. (Unless it's from guns.) It's about the rights of parents to protect their children from the sexual manipulation of the gays/transgenders. It's about protecting women from the sexually violent lesbian/transgender predators.

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what they “actually mean” when it comes to my point. The reality is that the flag symbolizes something that focuses on masculinity and femininity in some way (in this case, bisexuality which is attraction to any gender) and it uses pink and blue to carry out that focus. And especially since every other flag has that theme, it overshadows any “actual meaning” that the colors may have.

Terfs didn’t ruin it in my opinion, everyone else moved away from the labrys and they were the only ones who kept using it. If anything, WE ruined the labrys by allowing it to only exist in terf spaces. And that’s a mistake that can easily be undone.

Are these what you’re talking about? These were made by other people already. If you would like a different variation or something I can do that!