The Sapphic Sanctuary
What's the difference between the sapphic flag and the lesbian flag?
The sapphic flag is pink and white with a violet and stands for the whole women-loving-women umbrella. The widely used lesbian flag is the orange-to-pink sunset design made by Emily Gwen in 2018, which represents lesbians specifically. Many lesbians fly both.
Last updated: July 19, 2026
The two flags answer different questions. The sapphic flag says women-loving-women in the broad sense. The lesbian flag speaks to lesbians in particular, so a lesbian might use either or both depending on what she wants to say.
The lesbian flag most people know now is the sunset design by Emily Gwen from 2018, a gradient from orange down to pink. Its stripes were given meanings running through gender nonconformity, independence, community, a unique relationship to womanhood, serenity, love, and femininity. A trimmed five-stripe version is the one you will see most often today (Wikipedia).
The sapphic flag, by contrast, leans on the pink-and-violet imagery rather than the orange tones. Its wider scope follows the difference between sapphic and lesbian.