What Does Aroace Mean?
Aroace stands for aromantic asexual.
Aromantic refers to someone who does not feel romantic attraction.
Asexual refers to someone who does not feel sexual attraction – read more about the asexual flag here.
Therefore, the term “aroace” refers to a person who neither feels romantic nor sexual attraction – either at all, or on a spectrum that may change overtime. They may or may not feel other types of emotional attachments, such as friendship or filial love. Some aroace people feel romantic or sexual attraction, but do not feel the need to act on it.
Aroace people represent about 1% of the population, as reported by the world-renowned UC Santa Barbara Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.
Common Misconceptions That People Have About Being Aroace
Aroace People Never Feel Romantic or Sexual Attraction
There exist subcategories of aroace, such as those who may feel romantic and/or sexual attraction in certain situations, which depend on each individual. It is said that they are “aroaspec” and/or “acespec”, meaning that they exist on the spectrum of aromanticity and/or asexuality. They are neither fully romantic or aromantic, nor fully allosexual or asexual.
Aroace People Have No Orientation
While some people are purely asexual and/or aromantic, most are not, and are instead acespec or arospec, and have a preference for certain genders. This can be a purely platonic attraction, or a limited romantic or sexual attraction.
Aroace People Do Not Date
A lot of aroace people do! Queerplatonic relationships are more common than some may realize. According to Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, there can be relationships between two queer people that may not have passion or intimacy, but they have commitment.
The Aroace Flag or Sunset Aroace Flag
The flag was first published on December 11, 2018 by @aroaesflags on Tumblr, in order to increase the visibility of aroace individuals and to give them the opportunity to gather under one flag.
Orange #e28c00
Orange represents community. Like blue, orange is in between purple and green, for asexual and aromantic. According to the designer of the flag, this represents “both the unity of ourselves as aroaces, as well as our places in both the aro and ace communities”.
Yellow #eace02
It represents love and relationships that exist outside of more conventional ideas of romantic and sexual relationships. A good example is the aforementioned queerplatonic relationships, which to an outsider may seem strange as they involve no sex and not even love in the traditional sense.
White #ffffff
It represents wholeness. For @aroaesflags, this is meant to represent aroaces who are “aplatonic, nonamorous, or otherwise not seeking a committed partnership”, as well as “how we are all whole people on our own”
Dark Blue #203756 and Light Blue #63aedc
They represent “the aroace identity as well as the spectrum of aroace identities and experiences” according to the flag’s creator. The choice of color is between green, for aromantic, and purple, for asexual (based on the dominant colors of their respective flags).
Other Aroace Spectrum Flags
The Oriented Aroace Flag
Hex color codes:
Dark Navy Blue #0e0e37
Light Slate Blue #80a3b7
White #fefffe
Teal #33b1a2
Created by @biaroace on Tumblr, for people who are “aromantic and asexual and never experience romantic or sexual attraction, but do experience another form of attraction that is significant enough to acknowledge alongside their aroace orientation”, in the creator’s words.
The Angled Aroace Flag
Hex color codes:
Bright Yellow #fbdc4c
Light Yellow #fbdc4c
Pale Yellow #fcfcbc
Beige #ece4cc
Black #2c1404
Created by Tumblr’s @black-aros in 2019. They decribe is as meant for someone who “experiences some level of sexual and/or romantic attraction, in which one would add that label to their aro-spec and/or ace-spec identity.” The colors have no particular meaning, but are also reminiscent of a sunset.
The Aroace Flux Flag
Hex color codes:
Hot Pink #f8575d
Pink #f67d85
Baby Pink #ffcde5
Light Blue #6b8fd5
Dark Blue #3b3f94
This flag was created in October 2020 on Tumblr by @astraldomination on, for anyone who is both aroflux and aceflux. According to the creator, this means that “both their sexual and romantic orientation fluctuate, but generally stays on the asexual and aromantic spectrums. These fluctuations may occur at the same time or they may be independent.”
Is Using the Aroace Flag the Same as Using the Aromantic Flag and the Asexual Flag?
The asexual flag and the aromantic flag are two separate things. They can of course be flown together – in fact an earlier design of the aroace flag consisted of both flags stacked atop each other. However, there was a desire in the aroace community to bundle their lack of romantic attraction and their lack of sexual attraction into a unique flag and one community, because being aro and being ace often interact with one another. This is also why the modern aroace flag features neither purple nor green, the representative colors of the ace and aro flag respectively.
How someone prefers to represent themselves depends on how they see their asexuality and aromanticity interacting with one another. If they are related, they will probably choose the aroace flag. If they deem them two different things, they may order to fly both flags separately.
Other LGBTQ Flags
The internet has allowed many isolated people to rally around niche commonalities, such as being aroace. For LGBTQ+ people, this has led to the creation of a variety of flags, each representing an umbrella or a more specific sexuality or gender identity. Read more about other pride flags.
Sexuality and gender identity are different things. Therefore, someone may be aroace and transgender, for example.
No matter what flag(s) you fly, hopefully you now know more about being aroace, and what the colors of its flag represent.
