The History of the Trans Flag

We can thank Monica Helms, a trans woman who is also a trans activist, for the flag that celebrates the trans community. Helms first designed the flag in 1999 and introduced it at a Phoenix Pride parade in 2000. The flag is a symbol of trans pride and diversity and has since become a universal badge of joy and acceptance. It’s displayed at Pride events, in homes, at businesses, on t-shirts—the list goes on and on.

If you’re looking to get a peek at the original flag, Helms donated it to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where visitors can see the design on display in the LGBT collection.

What Do the Colors of the Trans Flag Mean?

As with all other flags, you have to know what the colors symbolize to fully appreciate the design. The trans flag is relatively simple when it comes to color palette, with five horizontal stripes and three main hues: pink, blue, and white. Each color encapsulates a different part of the trans community, coming together in one cheery banner. The flag was designed so that there is no upside down version of the arrangement—no matter which way it’s flown, the same image appears. This was done intentionally to add another layer of meaning to the flag: There is no wrong way to hang the flag, just as there is no wrong way to express your gender identity

What does the pink represent?

According to traditional societal rules, pink is often associated with girls. This color is incorporated to celebrate anyone who identifies as a woman, despite the gender they were assigned at birth.

What does the blue represent?

Similarly to the pink addition, blue is a nod to society’s association of the color with boys. You guessed it: The color celebrates anyone who identifies as a man, despite the gender they were assigned at birth.

What does the white represent?

Gender is not constricted by the binary of boy or girl, man or woman. With this in mind, Helms wanted to celebrate the broader LGBTQ+ community in the design. The central white stripe is in honor of people who identify as intersex, transitioning, or don’t have a pre-defined gender.

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  • asa_red_heathen [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    This requires a cw for all living things. All that exists. This goes against everything holding our universe together. All bounds of logic and reason have begun to break down. The boundaries separating what is real and what is unreal have begun to unravel and the darkness has begun to creep into the peripherals of our vision. Soon all will be unmade as it was before it was made. soon there will be nothing. Soon nothing will cease to exist and everything will once again be born into a swirling mass of agony. Then the time of monsters will come again. Eternal recurrence is upon us as it always was and will have been again. look upon the dark stars and weep. Weep for the endless night. Weep so that you may feel something once again before all sensation is stripped away layer by layer and plastered upon the paper mache automatons of our sorrows. The wells have dried up. The tree has shriveled and died, its last leaf falled to the barren salted earth.

    • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      You see things as a cycle of ending and rebirth but this is blasphemy. You look on the man eating balls in chocolate powder and milk as a horrific peak but the entirety of the universe is an ever building crescendo of absurdity. The divine comedy is a series of one liners that also fit into a grand tapestry of strange combinations and contrasts. At the moment the man ate the balls and every time someone watched it after that a creature was dying of starvation. Every moment is more divine than the last and there is no end and no beginning only the ever growing Shepard’s Scale of inconceivable and growing complexity.

      You can weep and feel powerless or you can understand the Divine Absurd’s will. Absurdity is to be met with laughter. Life and existence is meaningless and everything dies changes or is destroyed but the bleakness of nothingness is a joke and either you are the punchline or you laugh.

    • RoomAndBored [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The sinews are weak. Those which hold the things together. The formlessness and shapes between. The sinews loose. They hang. And drop. Impotent against the entropy now. You raise a spoon to your lips. The drips. The drips of milk run down your chin.

      • asa_red_heathen [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

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