this article will receive continuous updates over the next several months.
Less than a month ago, over 30,000 people from the non-monogamous community came together to vote on a new pride flag to represent them. In the short weeks since then, creators far and wide have begun applying the new flag in illustrations, designs, crafts, and other goodies. Flags for Good, a US-based nonprofit put the design up for preorder on their site within hours.
But how did it happen? Why was this flag chosen? Who decided which designs became candidates in the vote? Do you have to use this flag if you don't want to? You and many others have questions. Keep reading: we've got the answers you're looking for right here.
what does the new polyamorous flag look like?
The design that won the vote for the new polyamory pride flag is called "tricolor polyamorous pride flag."
It was created in 2022 by Red Howell, who submitted it to polyamproud's team of volunteers ahead of the selection committee deliberation and voting periods.
You can find a more detailed description including its color symbolism here, but for quick reference: this polyamorous pride flag has a white chevron at the hoist, which sits asymmetrically on the vertical plane and contains a golden yellow geometric heart shape.
To the right of the chevron, three horizontal bands stretch to the fly end of the flag. In order from top to bottom, their colors are cyan blue, magenta, and a dark purple.
In the wake of the announcement of the results, both the flag and polyamproud's project to run the vote have sparked conversation throughout the polyamorous community and around the world.
what did the other candidates look like?
Over the course of the year and a half polyamproud has existed, we've seen, created, found, and received well over a hundred versions of polyamorous pride flags designed by people all over the world.
Thanks to a nominated volunteer committee of seven experienced, intersectional polyamorists, only four of the best design candidates made it to the public vote. In order of their ranking in the final tally of votes, the three runners-up were Heart Continuum, Tetracor, and Wide Band. They're picture below, but further description and information of each candidate can be found at the links to their individual pages.
how did the committee end up picking these four designs?
The selection process for the polyamorous pride flag took over a year, and began with polyamproud's volunteer team of professional designers and researchers who scoured the internet and interviewed international polyamory advocates and educators to find every incarnation of symbols, banners, and flags representing polyamory they could.
The team collected information and advice from those with experience in flag design, voting methods, nonprofit work, copyright law, polyamory education, and more, while creating, editing and refining a list of top designs based on informal discussions and their own expertise.
In spring 2022, group of 30 advisors with various areas of experience and expertise in non-monogamy completed a formal survey containing 15 candidate proposals, including multiple variations of the popular infinity heart symbol.
Using the advisors' feedback and vexillological know-how, polyamproud's design team went back to the community to encourage a final bout of design submissions before setting the committee to the task of narrowing the field of designs.
Finally, 10 designs were sent to the committee for review. You'll notice earlier iterations of the designs that ended up in the final four—each of the designs was revised and edited based on the committee's feedback, which led to the changes reflected in the candidates seen in the public vote.
the breakdown of the instant-runoff rounds.
Round One:
tricolor: 9235 (29.96%)
heart continuum: 7931 (25.73%)
tetracor: 6937 (22.50%)
wide band: 6724 (21.81%)
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total: 30827 votes
wide band has been eliminated, splitting up to:
heart continuum: 2946 (43.81%)
tricolor: 2299 (34.19%)
tetracor: 1337 (19.88%)
none: 142 (2.11%)
Round Two:
tricolor: 11534 (37.59%)
heart continuum: 10877 (35.45%)
tetracor: 8274 (26,96%)
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total: 30685 votes
tetracor has been eliminated, splitting up to:
tricolor: 4102 (49.57%)
heart continuum: 3966 (47,94%)
none: 206 (2.49%)
Final Round:
tricolor: 15636 (51,30%)
heart continuum: 14843 (48,70%)
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total: 30479 votes
which concludes the vote: Tricolor has won