Lesbian

Disclaimer: People can experience identities in different ways. As such, people can identify with a label without exactly matching the definition because identities are fluid.

Lesbian is a term used by non-men who experience attraction to non-men. The definition can vary greatly, as the term was originally only used to describe women who were attracted to women, but this definition is more inclusive, as it also includes nonbinary and trans-masculine individuals. Lesbians may or may not experience other sexual or romantic attractions, such as being on the asexual or aromantic spectrums, or being bisexual. Lesbians can present in any way they like, whether it be masculine, feminine, androgynous, or a combination of them.

Homosexual is another term used to describe lesbians, but not as often. Many prefer the terms lesbian and/or gay instead because homosexual was used when being gay was considered a mental illness or disease by anti-LGBTQ+ people. Because of this, some lesbians may find being called homosexual derogatory and offensive. Some people prefer to call themselves lesbian because they believe the term homosexual is too focused on physical acts instead of attraction or romance. Other queer people do not use gay or lesbian as a label to describe themselves because of the negative connotations with how the words are used in slang, undesirable cultural connotations, and/or because they find the labels "gay" or "lesbian" too restricting.

The opposite of lesbian is straight (heterosexual).

The following quote is from Rooster (they/them), a Behavioral Health Technician, who is a lesbian:

“Femininity is such an ethereal and beautiful thing, in all shapes and forms. Being a lesbian is embracing femininity. Being a lesbian is loving femininity in all its soft and hard ways. It's loving people for being kind and nurturing, strong and violent. It's loving yourself for crying. Lesbianism is more than just kissing women (although that is an incredible perk), it is protecting and embracing all that is beautiful.”

The lesbian pride flag was created by Catherine Becker (then taqwomen, now purrfectbycath on Tumblr) around July 25, 2018. It was one of many options in a poll called "Official Lesbian Flag Poll" that was posted on Tumblr and Twitter on June 30, 2018. This flag, which is called the community lesbian pride flag, was announced as the poll winner on August 28, 2018.

The poll was created due to many controversies and issues with previously used lesbian flags:

• The labrys lesbian flag was created by Sean Campbell, a gay graphic designer, in 1999 and was the first flag specifically designed for lesbians. However, this flag had multiple issues, including the labrys being used by some fascist organizations, the black triangle being associated with Nazi Germany, the creator not being a lesbian, and transmisogynists using the flag.
• The lipstick lesbian flag was "created" by Natalie McCray in 2010 specifically for lipstick lesbians (very feminine lesbians) to use. However, McCray used did not attribute the flag design to Fausto Fernós, who created a cougar pride flag with a very similar design in 2008, meaning McCray plagiarized. Other controversies surrounding the flag's creator involve her making racist, biphobic, transphobic, and other hateful comments, including ones toward butches (masculine lesbians) and gender-nonconforming lesbians.
• The pink lesbian flag was created around 2013 by using the same stripe colors as the lipstick lesbian flag and removing the kiss mark. This flag was meant to be for all lesbians, not only lipstick lesbians. However, since it was based upon the lipstick lesbian flag, many see it as not inclusive of butches and gender non-conforming lesbians.
• A pink and orange lesbian flag was created by Tumblr user shapeshifter-of-constellation on July 3, 2017. This flag combined 3 pink stripes from the lipstick lesbian/pink flag with 3 orange stripes from the butch flag (created by Mod Q of the butch positivity Tumblr blog in June 2017). A white stripe was placed in between the pink and orange stripes to represent lesbians who are neither butch nor femme. The flag was misunderstood to be a combined butch and femme flag, instead of being a flag for all lesbians, although shapeshifter-of-constellation did later clarify this.
• The sunset lesbian flag was "created" by Emily Gwen in June 2018. Aside from swapping the orange stripes to be on top and pink stripes on the bottom and resizing the flag, it is very similar to the flag created by shapeshifter-of-constellation.

Another lesbian flag was created by Lydia (lydiandragon), who expressed concerns about some people wanting to use the lipstick lesbian flag to represent all lesbians. The flag colors were based upon a poem written by Sappho, a lesbian poet from ancient Greece. The color order was originally different (purple, yellow, green, then pink), and current color order was suggested by Maya Kern. The color meanings are: sapphic love (purple), fragility (pink), strength (yellow), and healing (green).

Each color of the community lesbian flag has its own meaning, given by Tumblr user birdblinder:

• Dark orange: transgressive womanhood
• Light orange: community
• White: gender non-conformity
• Light pink: freedom
• Dark pink: love

• The Trevor Project's "Understanding Gay & Lesbian Identities" defines what gay and lesbian mean, answers common questions about lesbians, and provides additional resources.
• The Lesbian Herstory Archives hosts the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians, including their communities.
• Many support resources for lesbian people include all 2SLGBTQIA+ people, so you can visit the Resources page for those.

Sources:

• LGBTQIA+ Wiki's "Lesbian" page
• LGBTQIA+ Fandom Wiki's "Lesbian" page

Images:

• "Simplified lesbian flag" by Tmmoney, remade by AnonMoos, public domain
• "Labrys lesbian flag" by Thespoondragon, licensed under CC0 1.0
• "Lipstick Lesbian flag" by Natalie McCray, SVG by xles, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
• "Lesbian Pride pink flag" SVG by AnonMoos, public domain
• "Lesbian pride flag 2018" vectorized by L ke, public domain
• "Sapphic flag 2" by Lydia, colors revised by Maya Kern, licensed under CC0 1.0