Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

Overview

Explicit inclusion of sex characteristics as a category not previously made visually explicit in the Progress Pride Flag lineage. Vecchietti stated her intention was to create 'much-needed intersex joy' and increase allyship from the broader LGBTQA community. ^[3]

The Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag emerged from the convergence of two trajectories: the rapid institutional adoption of Quasar's 2018 Progress Pride Flag, which foregrounded trans and racial inclusion, and a growing intersex rights movement pressing for visibility and an end to intersex genital mutilation. When Vecchietti saw the Progress flag, she recognized an opportunity to make intersex representation visually explicit in a design that was already claiming to represent the full LGBTQ community. She created the redesign as part of Intersex Equality Rights UK's 2021 Pride season campaign, adding a yellow triangle with a purple circle, the elements of Morgan Carpenter's 2013 intersex flag, at the innermost point of the Progress chevron. ^[3][4] The flag was posted on Intersex Equality Rights UK's Instagram in late May 2021 and went viral immediately. ^[2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

LGBTQ community with explicit intersex inclusion

Subcommunity

Intersex community

Movement

Intersex visibility, inclusive pride, bodily autonomy, anti-IGM activism

Diaspora Context

Global circulation

National Context

Adopted as the official Pride flag of the Canadian federal public service as of 2024. ^[5] In 2024, the flag was raised for the first time on Parliament Hill during the Pride Flag Raising ceremony. ^[6] The Smithsonian Institution flew the flag above its Castle building and at the National Museum of American History in June 2023, marking the first time in the institution's history that a Pride flag was formally raised on its DC campus. ^[7][8]

The flag responds to a global human rights context. A figure of up to 1.7% of the population being born with intersex traits is commonly cited in intersex advocacy (originally from Anne Fausto-Sterling's work), though the exact prevalence depends on how intersex is defined and is contested among researchers. Intersex people face non-consensual medical interventions in most countries. In 2015, Malta became the first nation to prohibit intersex genital mutilation through its Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act, while intersex people in the United Kingdom remain excluded from protections under the Equality Act. Vecchietti's work with the Government Equalities Office and Intersex Equality Rights UK connects the flag to these legal and bodily-autonomy campaigns. ^[9][10]

Creators

The Creator

Valentino Vecchietti

Designer

Valentino Vecchietti (she/her) is an award-winning intersex equality campaigner, writer, artist, consultant, and diversity speaker based in the United Kingdom. ^[11][9] An intersex person herself, Vecchietti has built a career spanning cultural, corporate, and government sectors, working with organizations including the British Film Institute, Channel 4, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Women of the World Festival. ^[9][12]

In January 2019, DIVA magazine welcomed Vecchietti as their intersex columnist, the first intersex column and intersex columnist in the UK or internationally. The monthly column established a sustained platform for intersex visibility in mainstream LGBTQIA+ media. ^[12][4]

That same year, Vecchietti founded Intersex Equality Rights UK, an intersex-led organization seeking systemic change through research, campaigns, and cultural engagement. A central project is a research initiative to measure the intersex population in the UK and explore lived experiences, work Vecchietti considers vital for visibility and equal protections. Vecchietti and Dr. Fae Garland also contributed to a call for evidence led by the Government Equalities Office on steps the government should take for people with variations in sex characteristics. ^[9]

Vecchietti's work has been recognized on the DIVA Power List, the Pride Power List 2020, the Independent Pride List, and the Lesbian 100 List. In 2022, Intersex Equality Rights was shortlisted for a Rainbow Honours Award in the category of Community Initiative with a Charity. ^[9][12]

I redesigned the Pride Progress flag to make it intersex inclusive for our intersex inclusion campaign this Pride season.

My redesign brings together Morgan Carpenter's and [Tony Briffa's] intersex flag design from 2013, and Daniel Quasar's Pride Progress flag design of 2018.

My intention in creating this iteration of the flag with visible intersex inclusion is to create some much-needed intersex joy. We also hope that it will increase allyship from the LGBTQA community.

It instantly made sense… it felt like a joyful visual and cultural statement of inclusion.

I created the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag in 2021. It is a #SOGIESC flag. Representing natural diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (intersex). This is a human rights framework.

Motivations

• To add explicit intersex representation to the Progress Pride Flag lineage ^[1][3]
• To create 'much-needed intersex joy' and increase LGBTQA allyship with the intersex community ^[3]
• To ensure that Pride crowds understood intersex as a distinct and underrepresented category ^[4]

Stated inspirations

• Morgan Carpenter's 2013 intersex flag (yellow field, purple circle)^[7][13]
• Daniel Quasar's 2018 Progress Pride Flag chevron design^[3][4]

Origin

Country

United Kingdom

Specific Place

Intersex Equality Rights UK campaign context

Place Type

activist redesign / digital dissemination

Digital Origin

true

Created in the United Kingdom. The Indigenous land acknowledgment framework used for entries in settler-colonial states (such as the United States, Canada, and Australia) does not directly apply to the United Kingdom, where the historical relationship between pre-Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and subsequent populations followed a different pattern of cultural absorption and transformation over millennia.

Vecchietti created the design as part of Intersex Equality Rights UK's intersex visibility and inclusion campaign for the 2021 Pride season. It was posted on the organization's Instagram and spread virally online before any physical production. ^[3][4]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2021

First public use

May 2021

Period in Use

2021–present

The design spread virally in summer 2021 and was described by multiple outlets as being 'internationally welcomed as the new Pride flag.' ^[1][4] On June 11, 2023, the Smithsonian Institution flew the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag above the Castle in Washington, DC, the first time in the Smithsonian's history that a Pride flag was formally raised on its DC campus. The flag was also flown at the National Museum of American History, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum hung it on its south-facing facade. The Smithsonian Pride Alliance advocated for the institutional adoption. ^[7][8][11]

In June 2024, the Public Service Pride Network adopted it as the official Pride flag of the Canadian federal public service, and it was raised on Parliament Hill during the Pride Flag Raising ceremony, the first time the intersex-inclusive design flew there. ^[6][5]

A direct descendant of the Progress Pride Flag with a separate influence from Morgan Carpenter's 2013 standalone intersex flag. The intersex elements, a yellow field and purple circle, were designed by Morgan Carpenter in 2013 as part of the standalone intersex flag. ^[7][13] As journalist Shar Jossell noted in Them, 'The circle that Vecchietti added to the Pride flag isn't just a statement of inclusion, it's a symbol of an ongoing human rights struggle.' ^[2]

In 2024, Vecchietti extended the inclusive-flag lineage further by collaborating with Evenbreak to create a Disability-Inclusive Pride Flag unveiled at London Pride. ^[14]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Intersex Pride Flag, Progress Pride Flag

Indirect influences

Philadelphia Pride Flag

Direct children

5790/2029 Pride Flag, Disability-Inclusive Pride Flag, Progress+ Flag (Disabled Queer Transmasc Variant), "Ultimate" Inclusive Diversity Pride Flag

Related flags

Disability Pride Flag, Nonbinary Trans Flag, Gilbert Baker Nine-Stripe Rainbow Flag, Original Rainbow Flag (1978), Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978), Rainbow Pride Flag, Transgender Pride Flag, Utopian Pride Flag #6 (2040 Progress Flag)

Sibling flags

Indigiqueer Pride Flag (cedar-maw), Utopian Pride Flag #6 (2040 Progress Flag)

Directly descended from the Progress Pride Flag. The 2013 intersex flag by Morgan Carpenter is a related influence contributing the yellow field and purple circle. ^[7][13] Vecchietti herself described the design as bringing together 'Morgan Carpenter's and [Tony Briffa's] intersex flag design from 2013, and Daniel Quasar's Pride Progress flag design of 2018.' ^[3] In 2024, Vecchietti extended this lineage with a Disability-Inclusive version created in collaboration with Evenbreak. ^[14]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 12 records across 7 generations.

Ancestors -5

Original Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -4

Seven-Stripe Rainbow Flag (1978)

Ancestors -3

Rainbow Pride Flag

Ancestors -2

Transgender Pride Flag, Philadelphia Pride Flag

Ancestor

Intersex Pride Flag, Progress Pride Flag

This record

Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

Children

"Ultimate" Inclusive Diversity Pride Flag, Disability-Inclusive Pride Flag, Progress+ Flag (Disabled Queer Transmasc Variant), 5790/2029 Pride Flag

Colors & Symbolism

A layered composite flag that extends the Progress Pride Flag lineage by adding explicit intersex representation. The six-stripe rainbow field carries the general LGBTQ reference; the chevron carries the Progress flag's trans and racial-justice stripes; the innermost circle-on-yellow element carries Morgan Carpenter's 2013 intersex pride flag into the composition. Vecchietti has described the flag as a '#SOGIESC flag,' grounding it in the international human rights framework of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. ^[1][7][8]

This flag has no official digital palette. Color values shown are approximate.

Yellow (intersex field)

An alternative to blue and pink; rejection of male/female gender binary color coding. Carpenter chose yellow specifically as a color free from gender associations. ^[13]

Purple (intersex circle)

Wholeness, autonomy, and integrity. Carpenter described the circle as 'unbroken and unornamented, symbolizing wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities.' The unbroken circle also references the fight against nonconsensual 'corrective' genital surgery on intersex infants, a practice the intersex rights movement considers a fundamental violation of bodily autonomy. ^[13][15]

The intersex element is imported directly from Morgan Carpenter's 2013 flag; Carpenter's original design statement emphasized choosing colors and a symbol that completely avoided gender-stereotyped associations. ^[13] The rainbow stripes, trans chevron stripes, and racial-justice stripes all retain the meanings documented for their respective parent flags and are listed in the table as inherited rather than redefined. Naming varies between sources: some use 'Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag' while others use the longer 'Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag'; both names are preserved. ^[1][7]

Exact digital values should remain provisional unless normalized from official project assets.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

horizontal field with expanded hoist-side chevron and circle

Stripe Count

6

Layout

horizontal stripes with chevron and circle

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

Center Symbol

Purple circle within yellow field at hoist-side chevron

Additional Symbols

Five-color hoist-side chevron (black, brown, light blue, pink, white), Purple circle on yellow field

A six-stripe rainbow flag with a hoist-side chevron containing black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes. At the innermost point of the chevron, a yellow field contains a purple circle derived from the intersex flag. The overall composition retains the forward-pointing arrow shape of the Progress flag while adding the intersex symbol at the design's focal point, visually centering intersex inclusion within the existing inclusive framework. ^[7][6]

Usage & Adoption

First Users

Valentino Vecchietti / Intersex Equality Rights UK campaign

Organizations

Public Service Pride Network (official Pride flag of Canadian federal public service), Government of Canada (Pride Season guidance), Smithsonian Institution (raised on Castle and NMAH buildings, displayed on Cooper Hewitt facade), Smithsonian Pride Alliance (advocated for institutional adoption)

Geographic Usage

International, Canada (explicitly documented federal adoption as of 2024), United States (Smithsonian flag raising and display, 2023), United Kingdom (origin country; Intersex Equality Rights UK campaigns)

Online Usage

Extensive, described as a 'global viral sensation' upon release ^[4]

Event Usage

Pride events worldwide, Museum and institutional displays, Raised at the Smithsonian Castle and NMAH on June 11, 2023, first Pride flag raised on the Smithsonian's DC campus ^[7][8], Cooper Hewitt facade display, Pride Month 2023 ^[7], Raised on Parliament Hill during the 2024 Pride Flag Raising ^[6], London Pride 2024 (Disability-Inclusive variant unveiled) ^[14]

Current Status

active and increasingly widespread

Valentino Vecchietti designed the intersex-inclusive revision, and Intersex Equality Rights UK officially unveiled it in late May 2021. ^[2] The design spread virally online and was described by Vecchietti's organization as 'internationally welcomed as the new Pride flag.' ^[1][4] In June 2023, the Smithsonian Institution's Pride Alliance successfully advocated for the flag to be flown above the Smithsonian Castle, the first time in the institution's history that a Pride flag was raised on its DC campus. Cooper Hewitt simultaneously hung the flag on its south-facing facade. ^[7][8] In 2024, the Public Service Pride Network designated it the official Pride flag of the Canadian federal public service, and it flew on Parliament Hill for the first time. ^[6][5]

Image Archive

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar balcony banner

Regent Street, London, ahead of Pride

Trans Day of Visibility demonstration, Rome

White House Pride celebration

National Museum of American History flag-raising

Discourse & Debates

• Naming differences between 'Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag' and 'Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag', the creator's project uses the shorter form, while museum and government sources tend toward the longer form ^[1][7]
• Confusion with the 2018 Progress Pride Flag, which lacks the intersex elements but is visually similar at a distance
• Whether successive additions to the rainbow flag lineage strengthen or fragment community solidarity
• The flag's relationship to Quasar's CC BY-NC-SA licensing of the underlying Progress design, and whether the intersex-inclusive variant inherits those restrictions or constitutes a separate work

Common misidentifications

• Often collapsed into generic 'Progress Pride Flag' language without distinguishing the intersex addition
• Sometimes incorrectly attributed to Daniel Quasar rather than Valentino Vecchietti

Common confusions

• Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag versus Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag naming
• 2021 intersex-inclusive design versus 2018 Progress design
• The intersex yellow/purple element being confused with a decorative addition rather than a reference to Carpenter's standalone intersex flag

Criticisms

• The flag participates in a broader debate about visual complexity in Pride symbols. Critics argue that successive additions to the rainbow flag (from the 2017 Philadelphia stripes to the 2018 Progress chevron to the 2021 intersex elements) risk creating an increasingly complex symbol that dilutes the unifying simplicity of Baker's original rainbow. Some community members contend that the six-stripe rainbow already represents the entire community and that itemizing specific identities ironically implies those groups 'didn't belong before.' ^[16]
• Morgan Carpenter, creator of the original 2013 intersex flag, has expressed broader concerns about corporate appropriation of intersex symbols. When Budweiser branded a cup with the intersex flag using an ambiguous description, Carpenter described it as an example of 'pinkwashing' that occurs 'when you make an image freely available and it has since become popular', a concern that extends to any commercial use of the intersex-inclusive flag. ^[10]

Both 'Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag' and 'Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag' appear in strong sources. ^[1][7] Vecchietti herself uses the shorter 'Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag' on the Global Inclusive Pride Flag Project site, while Cooper Hewitt and the Canadian government use the longer form. The longer form is used as the display title for clarity. Vecchietti has also framed the flag as a 'SOGIESC flag', using the international human rights acronym for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics. ^[8]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

intersex-inclusive-progress-2021

• Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag hoisted on the central balcony of the Main Building during Campus Pride Week, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, June 2022. The display frames the flag as an institutional statement of welcome and anti-discrimination. · Credit: Thomas Müller · Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
• Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flags above Regent Street, London, June 2022. A street-level view showing the flags from a pedestrian perspective. · Credit: Henry Nicholls / Reuters · Our Sunday Visitor / OSV News
• Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flags hanging across Regent Street, London, June 26, 2022, ahead of the city's Pride celebrations. The large-scale street installation shows the flag's visibility in a major urban cultural corridor. · Credit: Henry Nicholls / Reuters · Our Sunday Visitor / OSV News
• Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag at a Transgender Day of Visibility demonstration, Rome, April 1, 2023. The image places the flag in active protest and public advocacy rather than decorative use alone. · Credit: SOPA Images / Contributor · Getty Images
• Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag at the White House Pride celebration, Washington, DC, June 10, 2023. The flag's display from the White House balcony marked one of the most high-profile uses of the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag in U.S. federal public space. · Credit: Anna Rose Layden / Reuters · Reuters Connect
• Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag being raised at the National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, June 11, 2023. The flag's installation marked one of the Smithsonian's first formal Pride-flag raisings on its DC campus. · Credit: Jaclyn Nash · Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum