At first, they were used as monikers for nations and militaries, then for conquering powers as nationalist symbols, however people have been taking back what a flag means and how it defines a community in more recent times.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than with the LGBTQ+ community, where the rainbow-colored pride flag has come to show what exactly it means to be queer in the most visible sense possible.
Yet, the pride flag is not the only representation of sexual and gender orientation that exists in the world today.
There are a couple of other flags that do this, such as the omnisexual flag. But what is an omnisexual? And what is the omnisexual flag? In this article, we seek to answer these questions and more about omnisexuality.
What Is Omnisexuality?
Omnisexual is a relatively new term that tends to mean someone who is attracted to all genders and to all sexes.
This means that anyone of the LGBTQ+ people within the community or even heteronormative people outside of the community would be attractive as a potential romantic or sexual partner to an omnisexual person.
This may confuse some people, as this seems to describe exactly what pansexual is, which is a more broadly used term. However, they don’t quite mean the same thing.
Pansexual people are, indeed, attracted to all genders and sexes, but in their attraction they are kind of considered ‘gender blind’.
This means that they are attracted to the person regardless of the gender, and their attraction has far more to do with the person themselves.
For omnisexual people, however, the gender of the person they are attracted to does play a part in the attraction itself.
For example, if an omnisexual person and a pansexual person are attracted to a masc presenting lesbian, the omnisexual person may be attracted to the presentation and confidence of the person themselves in their own gender identity, whereas the pansexual person would be just attracted to the person in general.
In the same vein, omnisexual and polysexual people can be confused as well, as they both display sexual attraction to multiple genders.
Omnisexual people, though, are attracted to all genders, whereas polysexuality do not necessarily experience attraction to all genders themselves.
What Is The Omnisexual Flag?
The omnisexual flag is a flag of multiple colors in a rainbow pattern, similar to the pride flag. The main difference between the two is the color scheme, though.
Whereas the pride flag is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, the omnisexual flag is light pink, dark pink, purple, dark blue, and light blue.
As with most flags in the LGBTQ+ community, the omnisexual flag is specific to the omnisexual community and, though the consensus can be a bit vague, it does have a meaning behind the colors.
The pink stands for an attraction to women, the blue stands for an attraction to men, and the purple stands for an attraction to non-binary people.
Depending on who you ask, the light colors also represent the changing gender spectrum in general and those that may not fall into any of the three categories.
The flag was originally created on July 4th 2015 by Pastelmemer and has been tweaked over the years by various people, including into its most well known form – where the purple is replaced with a black center.
This was done by TheNelsonSystem on July 22nd, 2021 to show people how they see the flag with their tritanopia color blindness.
Although Pastelmemer never explained the colors or ever gave any meaning to them whatsoever, the omnisexual community attached their own meaning to them over time.
Again, this meaning is a little vague depending on the individual, but they all roughly agree on the main points about it representing all genders.
Problems For The Omnisexual Community
Unfortunately, omnisexuality has had its problems outside of the LGBTQ+ community and even within it.
This is partly to do with the same problems that face other lesser known sexualities, like asexuality and gender-fluidity, in that not many people have heard of it and so omnisexuals are mocked as either individuals desperately seeking attention or as people who are crazy, neither of which are true.
Omnisexuals also have another problem. Their sexuality is quite hard to explain without people just assuming they are either pansexual or bisexual.
This is an issue because, while these sexual orientations are close to their own, they certainly do not explain or cover the whole facets of the omnisexuality.
Since people already love established categories, many will choose to just ignore omnisexual people and put them into the pansexual and bisexual categories.
This is particularly problematic when people within the LGBTQ+ community do it, as they are the very people who are meant to be embracing of other’s culture and ideas towards sexuality and gender.
Are Things Getting Better For The Omnisexual Community?
Absolutely, they are. The problems that are faced by people who are omnisexual are not as bad as they sound.
Most people are ecstatic for omnisexual people when they come out and, even though they may not be educated on the subject, they often embrace them as they are.
Over time, the main problems faced by omnisexual people – a lack of recognition and a pushing of their sexuality into different categories – will begin to fade as they become recognized more and more for who they are.
It may take a while, but nothing happens overnight, and eventually many people will know exactly what an omnisexual is.
Conclusion
Omnisexuality is a newly visible sexual orientation that started to come to light in 2015. It is a term to describe those who are attracted to all genders, but their attraction is intertwined with the aspect of the gender they are attracted to.
Although it is not that well known, many people have started identifying as such and will continue to do so into the future.
Hello, my name is Gay Worlley - no, really - and I love learning about all things queer. I am also a qualified gardener and enjoy traveling in my spare time.
I love sharing my travel stories with anyone who will listen, and now I want to share them with the world through my new website! Not only that, but I want to inspire others and teach you about LGBTQ+ travel, queer media, pride, and much more.
Enjoy my website and, more importantly, enjoy learning about important subjects that need more educational attention. Thanks for stopping by!
