The trans flag was created by U.S. trans woman Monica Helms in 1999,[4][5] and was shown at a Pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, United States in the 2000. In addition, the UK, flies the trans flag on Transgender Day of Remembrance. The flag was also flown during San Francisco’s Castro District (where the LGBTQIA+ flag flies) for the first time on 19 and 20 November 2012 in memory of Transgender Day of Remembrance; it was flown by drag queen La Monistat.
The flag represents the trans community, and has 5 horizontal stripes; light blue, pink, white, then baby pink, then light blue. Helms describes the flag as following; “The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls,”[6][7] and “the white stripe is for people that are non-binary, feel that they don’t have a gender.” In addition, the blue to pink represents MTF (male to female), and the pink to blue represents FTM (female to male) individuals.
In 1999, trans man Johnathan Andrew, on his blog “Adventures in Boyland”, designed and published a flag for those within the transgender community that identify as trans. This trans pride flag consists of seven stripes in light pink and light blue separated by thin white stripes and featuring, in the upper left hoist, a twinned Venus and Mars symbol (“⚥”) in lavender. The repeated pattern consisted of Helms’s more well-known flag design is almost identical.
In Israeli, a third design is used for the transgender and genderqueer community; the flag has a neon green background (in order to stand out in public places), and a centered Venus, Mars, and Mars with stroke symbol (“⚧”) in black to represent transgender people.
4 thoughts on “The History of the Trans Flag, Its Variations, & What It Represents”