Photo of a trans pride flag being waved at a pride parade, by Ted Eytan.
The Trans Flag
2021 is the first year that we’ve seen the trans flag so widely embraced for Pride, even showing up embedded in a new iteration of the rainbow flag. While it remains to be seen if this new iteration of the flag will continue to be popular in the pride parades to come, no one can deny that this show of solidarity is crucial as trans rights continue to be treated as debatable. Those of us who know our history know that LGBT+ rights would not be anywhere without trans people, and those who attempt to deny the ways in which all the letters of the acronym have historically intertwined are poorer for their ignorance.
But, back to the flag. This year might be the first year you’ve seen the trans flag so often, and you might be wondering: where does it come from? When was it invented, and by who? Well, wonder no longer!
Via Buzzfeed, Monica Helms holds the original flag she created. The flag now sits in the collections of The Smithsonian Institution.
At the urging of the creator of the bi flag Michael Page, Monica Helms designed the blue, pink, and white trans flag in 1999. The pink and blue were chosen because they are the traditional colours assigned to baby girls and boys in the US, while white has been said to represent intersex people, non-binary/agender people, and those who are transitioning. It was first flown in a pride parade in 2000, and the flag and its colours have become synonymous with the trans community in the years since.
Monica herself created a short video about her creation, which you can watch here below: