voting opens at 12:00am [0:00] UTC/GMT, Tuesday, 1 November, 2022. 8:00pm [20:00] US Eastern Standard Time, Monday, 31 October, 2022 10:00pm [22:00] Brasilia Standard Time, 31 October. 2:00 am Eastern European Standard Time, 1 November. 5:30am India Standard Time, 1 November. 12:00pm New Zealand Standard Time, 1 November.

you can cast your vote for the new polyamorous pride flag right here.

our mission has always been to provide people who identify with and/or practice polyamory and non-monogamy unique flag designs they've likely never seen before, but which are all intended to represent polyamory and non-monogamy. most existing designs are slight alterations or remixes of the same idea. instead, we've asked the community to send us designs which break the mold. no more than six designs will be presented in the public vote, and each of those designs will have been reviewed by a group of several dozen advisors (some experienced designers and vexillologists, and many of the leading voices in the global non-monogamous community), as well as discussed, refined, and selected by a committee of seven representatives from around the world.

we'll be using preferential voting method known as instant run-off. you'll be able to list up to four flag designs in order from the one you like most, second-most, third-most, and fourth-most. any designs you don't select will be automatically dropped from your ballot. you must choose at least one candidate to submit your ballot. the voting method will compare everyone's preferred choices. if a majority of voters choose the same design as a first choice, that design will win. if not, the candidate with the least number of first-choice votes is eliminated from the count. then, the second-, third-, and fourth-choice candidates from those ballots are moved up in their ranking on those ballots. then the same process repeats until a single candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes.

that's okay! it's possible, maybe even likely that you won't like the designs selected by the committee. we only ask that you give each candidate a fair assessment and consider choosing instead the candidate that you dislike the least. design and aesthetic preferences are subjective, and it's not at all uncommon for even the best designs to be met with very mixed audience responses before they become adopted. just know that each of the candidates will have been heavily scrutinized and intricately thought-out before making it to the vote, and that we (polyamproud) and the flag selection committee will not include any designs that we don't or won't ourselves support and make use of.

because so many people will be voting, there's a strong probability that this will be the case! we would just ask you to consider whether you would prefer to prioritize your personal aesthetic preference or the choice made by your fellow non-monogamous and polyamorous community members. but, as we've said from the beginning, the way you choose to represent your polyamory is completely up to you. if you still love the original 'pi' flag, you are more than welcome to use it. we're just here to give our community its best chance at finding something new.

it largely depends on who you ask, but the generally accepted polyamorous flag design is the "pi" flag, created by Jim Evans in 1995. since 1995, dozens of other designs have been proposed with varying levels of success and renown, but none to date has come to be recognized as the polyamory pride flag. we believe a public vote can help change that.

a few volunteer designers on our team have produced some of the designs, but we have also received dozens of designs from the public—folks who've been following or discovered our project and decided to contribute an idea or design of their own. you can learn more about our process here. you can, too! until 25 august, 2022, feel free to submit a verbal idea, a rough sketch, or a fully-realized design to polyamproud@gmail.com or DM it to us on instagram or facebook. if you send in an image, please send it with a paragraph or two about the intention behind your design, what each component is meant to represent, and why you think it's a great choice as a polyamorous pride flag. we love designs that are really out-of-the-box, so give us your most creative representations of polyamory—something you believe we've never seen before. finally, if the team chooses to move forward with any part of your design, we'll reach out to the email or social media account you submitted from to discuss it with you!

the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) put together an excellent reference point that we've been using as a starting place when assessing design possibilities. their pamphlet Good Flag, Bad Flag is considered by vexillologists (flag experts) worldwide as the go-to text for flag design. with that text in mind, we're working with flag students, experts, and enthusiasts to ensure the new polyamorous flag adheres to these principles (or diverges from them with thoughtful intentionality): 1. Keep It Simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory. 2. Use Meaningful Symbolism. The flag's images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes. 3. Use 2 or 3 Basic Colors. Limit the number of colors on the flag to three which contrast well and come from the standard color set. 4. No Lettering or Seals. Never use writing of any kind or an organization's seal. 5. Be Distinctive or Be Related. Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but depart from these five principles only with caution and purpose. other than that, we want to see designs that capture the non-monogamous experience, and communicate the joy of those within it and welcome to those newly coming to it.

one of the foundational tenets of our organization is that any polyamorous or non-monogamous pride flag should be owned by the public and free to use by anyone in any way, forever. following the precedent set by Jim Evans when he created his original 'pi' flag design in 1995, the design that wins the november vote will be registered under a Creative Commons license prior to its public release. as a show of good faith, we've also registered the five-heart symbol we created under the same free-use license. you can download it here and use it however you like. once the design legally belongs to the public, you'll be able to download high-resolution PNG and vector files of the design at polyamproud.com.

you can check out the members of the 2022 polyamory pride flag selection committee here.

all of our advisors were chosen based on the same criteria we used to appoint committee members. while we don't have explicit permission from every one of our advisors to share their identities, we're happy to count the following people among the many who've helped us refine the each of the designs to be submitted to the polyamorous pride flag selection committee. Dr. Elisabeth Sheff – Author & Researcher Polyamorous Black Girl – Content Creator Justin Clardy, PhD – Writer & Professor MetalWing – Artist & Designer Leanne Yau @polyhiliablog – Content Creator & Educator BoPoLena – Illustrator & Comic Artist Gabrielle Alexa – Author & Content Creator Gregory Engels – Public Figure Ro Moëd – Educator & Coach Morgan K. @chillpolyamory – Peer Support Albert @polymananswers – Content Creator Elizabeth Cunningham – Speaker & Coach Kim Kinnear – Designer & Vexillology Enthusiast Alex Porter of The Portah Family – Author, Organizer & Speaker Skylar Mundy – Content Creator & Digital Artist Julio César Pérez Jerez – Activist

no one. polyamproud is an independent group of volunteers united to achieve the goal of a democratically selected polyamorous pride flag. you can read more about our team here.

we do not make money. polyamproud is an independent, not-for-profit coalition of polyamorous, non-monogamous and allied volunteers—we do not and will not sell any products, accept money for advertisement or promotion, nor provide a paid service of any kind. we have received individual donations (to date, collectively fewer than $500USD) to help cover operating costs, and have also accepted a couple of sponsorships from contributors to cover specific costs like hosting our website and a reliable email service.

the short answer is: we don't get to decide what the next polyamory pride flag is. the long answer? while we've put the work into forming a selection committee, a group of advisors, a team of fantastic volunteers, we know that work doesn't entitle us to make decisions for this community. in simplest form, our mission is to produce a new polyamorous pride flag via a public vote, and make it available for anyone to use. after that, whether the non-monogamous and polyamorous community adopts the flag we've produced is up to them. this effort is not intended to prevent people from expressing themselves with the symbols or devices they prefer—instead, it's a way to give as many people as possible an opportunity to have a say in the symbol they use to represent them.

you tell us! send us an email— polyamproud@gmail.com —and tell us about yourself, some skills you have, and/or the ways in which you'd be interested in helping out.