MAP Flag

Part of NewgonWiki's series on minor-attracted identities
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Category: Minor-attracted people
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For an extended list of graphics, see Memes and Graphics.

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a MAP Flag, which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "Minor Attracted Person". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer.

2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a MAP Flag, after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.

Calls for a flag appear to go back at least to a 2009 competition, on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user Philist, a pro-c, had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

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  Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
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  2021 version. Designed via Yesmap server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the United MAP Flag on Pediverse due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale
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  Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
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  Katie Cruz with MAP Flag
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  MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
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  Small-time Validity Sadist and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
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  The MAP Flag inspired an imitation Anti-MAP Flag, featured here
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  A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany
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  MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
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  Flag website sticker located at roadside
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  More stickers sighted on roadside
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  Lapel pin/badge
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  NNIA Fediverse user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
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  MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.
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  2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive pro-c symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (rarely used)
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  In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, falsely suggesting that a link between the 2009 and 2018 concepts might be, or was alleged to be "plagarism"
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  A response meme was made.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has allowed for the production of more varied secondary graphics deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

Origin of 2018 flag

Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs

The origins of the 2018 flag are a Tumblr user named Stenna, who published it in June of that year, according to the NNIA Mastodon/Fediverse instance owner comrade_lecter. Lecter, had in 2017 designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but they did not go viral like Stenna's later flag.

Stenna's flag graphic then spread throughout social media, although after its removal by Tumblr, Stenna's page was then squatted by a hostile actor. Tumblr trolls have subsequently been suggested by various "fact checkers" as the true source of the flag, although this is likely to have resulted from the confusion surrounding Tumblr's censorship attempt. The initial controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, infecting the gay press. In one article, GayStarNews (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster, using a shortened version of his name) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the historically ignorant article, GayStarNews incorrectly stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known hoax. These "hoax" claims were repeated elsewhere.

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These have been wrongly interpreted as LGBT re-entryist attempts by MAPs. The 2021 version, and a subsequent pro-c proposal have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with smalltime influencers burning printed versions on camera, and members rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling by "fact checkers"

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at Snopes.com have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". AFP Fact Check repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later. These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the LGBTQ+ community after years of ostracism. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our research article demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the MAP Movement in its literature against Moral panic.

Snopes belatedly redact their false claim

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads. A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.

Symbolism and development of concept

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

• The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
• The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
• The gradient stripes are always said to represent boys/more masculine personal features and girls/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

NOMAP Flag of 2018

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"

Philist's 2009 proposal

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. [...] A spectrum of gender and age"

Gallery of forum discussions

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user defend_yourselves555 on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the 2009 competition wiki article.

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  The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a TBL using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
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  Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
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  Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
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  Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.

Later controversies

Blues clues controversy

In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show Blues Clues, in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a Youth Attracted Person flag (featured in article).

MAP colors "copied to pride flag"?

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned Progress Pride Flag contains the colors of the MAP Flag, in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims, which appear to be far-fetched, are disputed by fact checkers.

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both boys and girls (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a Trans Pride Flag that predated the MAP Flag. The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.

External links

A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory

• Vox populi video (source unknown) - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
• MAP Wiki Article - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a Minor MAP Flag.