Intersex Pride Flag

Overview

Morgan Carpenter created the flag within the Australian intersex human-rights movement, then published through Organisation Intersex International Australia, to offer a symbol that was neither derivative of rainbow flags nor built from gender symbols or pink-and-blue conventions. His personal record says he first shared it online on 4 July 2013; the organization's resource page is dated 5 July. The organization later became Intersex Human Rights Australia and now operates within InterAction for Health and Human Rights.

The golden-yellow field and purple ring make the design visually distinct, but Carpenter's account locates its meaning in bodily autonomy rather than gender identity. The circle is "unbroken and unornamented," signifying wholeness, completeness, and potential. The flag has since become widely used by intersex-led organizations and advocates internationally. Carpenter formally applied CC0 1.0 on 18 December 2013, so reproduction, modification, and commercial use do not require permission or attribution, though archival credit remains appropriate.

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

Intersex people and the intersex community

Movement

Intersex human rights, bodily autonomy and genital integrity advocacy

National Context

Published in Australia; used internationally by intersex-led organizations and advocates

Creators

The Creator

Attribution notes

Morgan Carpenter is the sole designer. Organisation Intersex International Australia published the design and supplied its context; it is recorded here as the original publisher, not as a co-designer. ^{[6] [2]}

Origin

Country

Australia

Place Type

online publication

Digital Origin

Yes

Origin Type

first_publication

No creation site is recorded. Australia is supported as the organizational context of publication, not as a documented place of making, so no state, city or Country is named for this flag. ^{[6] [2]}

Australia is supported as the organizational and movement context, not as a documented site of creation. Carpenter was working within the Australian intersex human-rights movement and published the design through Organisation Intersex International Australia, whose website was the first platform to carry it. ^{[6] [2]} No source read states where the flag was drawn, so no region, city or physical creation site is claimed.

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2013

First documented online share

July 4, 2013

Period in Use

2013–present

The flag was carried at Amsterdam Pride Walk on 29 July 2017, photographed as IranPride entered the Vondelpark. ^[7]

On 17 May 2018 the rainbow, bisexual, transgender and intersex flags were raised together on the forecourt of Parliament in Wellington to mark IDAHOBIT. PrideNZ, which recorded the ceremony, states it is believed to be the first time in the world that those four flags flew together in front of a seat of government. That is a narrower and more careful claim than the one often repeated, that New Zealand was the first country to fly the intersex flag at a national parliament, which no source read here establishes. ^[8]

It was held at the fifth Pride Serbia in Academic Park, Belgrade, on 29 June 2019. ^[9]

In 2021 Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK set the yellow field and purple circle into the Progress Pride Flag, and that composite carried the emblem into far wider institutional use than the standalone flag had reached. ^[10] Writing at the flag's tenth anniversary, Carpenter described seeing "the flag used across the world, and to have that connection with groups on every continent." ^[5]

Major revisions

1. 2019-06-20

   The resource page was revised. The design was unchanged; the text was rewritten to replace earlier terminology and to add Carpenter's explanation of that change. ^{[6] [2]}

In June 2019 Budweiser UK, as official beer of Pride London, produced limited-edition cups carrying nine Pride flags, the intersex flag among them, with wording about intersex people that Carpenter called ambiguous. CC0 left him no legal means to object, and he wrote that he cannot control the flag's use now that it is widely available, while expressing the hope that Budweiser would improve their language and resource work led by intersex people. That is Carpenter's response, not a settled community position. ^[2]

Lineage

Direct children

Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag

Related flags

Jewish Progress Pride Flag (Keshet), Progress Pride Flag

No parent flags. Carpenter described the design as deliberately non-derivative, and the things it reacted against are precedents it rejected rather than ancestors: rainbow flags, gender symbols, and pink-and-blue conventions are named in his own account as what he was avoiding, so none of them is drawn as a lineage edge. ^{[6] [2] [5]}

The Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag of 2021 is the documented direct descendant, and later flags built on that 2021 design descend from it in turn. ^[10] The Intersex Ally Flag (Rosie) visibly carries an unbroken purple circle, but the source that documents that flag could not be read directly for this revision, so the derivation is recorded as a related connection rather than as descent until the source states it.

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 6 records across 3 generations.

This record

Intersex Pride Flag

Children

Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag

Generation 3

Disability-Inclusive Pride Flag, Progress+ Flag (Disabled Queer Transmasc Variant), 5790/2029 Pride Flag, Two-Spirit Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag

Colors & Symbolism

Carpenter chose yellow and purple to keep the flag clear of gender symbolism. He wrote that the colours and circle "don't just avoid referencing gender stereotypes, like the colours pink and blue, they seek to completely avoid use of symbols that have anything to do with gender at all." The circle is "unbroken and unornamented, symbolising wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities," and he tied it directly to a continuing fight: "We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how we want to be." ^{[6] [2]}

Designer page, official values ^[2]

The claim recorded here is Carpenter's design intention, that he picked colours already in use in intersex contexts and outside the pink-and-blue convention. It is not a claim that yellow and purple carry no gender associations anywhere. ^{[6] [2]}

Carpenter publishes both values as the official colours: golden yellow #FFD800, RGB 255, 216, 0, and purple #7902AA, RGB 121, 2, 170. The official vector uses the same two. ^{[2] [1]} They are taken from those sources rather than sampled from a manufactured flag or a photograph.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard (archive production specification)

Ratio Notes

Source design: 900 × 600 · 3:2 width-to-height. The official vector is drawn on a 900 by 600 canvas, which is the 2:3 proportion in the conventional height-to-width notation. ^[1] The 3:5 figure above is the archive's own production specification, used so that flags display comparably across the database; it is not the proportion Carpenter published, and it is not offered as this flag's historical ratio. The artwork on this page is reproduced at the source proportion and is neither stretched nor cropped to the production figure.

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

0

Layout

solid field with centered emblem

Center Symbol

Unbroken purple ring, centered

The official vector published with the resource fills a 900 by 600 canvas with a #FFD800 rectangle and sets one circle on it, centred at 450, 300, with a radius of 147 and a stroke 53.625 units wide in #7902AA, with no fill. ^[1] Because the ring is a stroke on that path rather than a filled annulus, it runs from radius 120.1875 to radius 173.8125, giving an outer diameter of 347.625, a little over half the height of the flag. The archive's artwork reproduces those values exactly.

A golden-yellow field with a single centered purple ring. No stripes and no other marks. ^{[6] [2]}

Usage & Adoption

First Users

Unknown

Organizations

Organisation Intersex International Australia, later Intersex Human Rights Australia, now InterAction for Health and Human Rights (original publisher and current host) ^[6], Intersex Equality Rights UK, through the 2021 intersex-inclusive design ^[10]

Geographic Usage

Australia (publication origin), International

Online Usage

Offered as a downloadable PNG and SVG from the resource page ^[6]

Event Usage

Amsterdam Pride Walk, 29 July 2017 ^[7], IDAHOBIT flag raising, Parliament forecourt, Wellington, 17 May 2018 ^[8], Pride Serbia, Academic Park, Belgrade, 29 June 2019 ^[9]

Current Status

Widely recognized; de facto primary intersex flag

The tenth-anniversary article describes the flag as "inescapably associated with a worldwide human rights movement. One that recognises systemic injustice against intersex bodies and pursues vital protections." ^[5] No source read identifies who first flew or carried a physical copy, so first users are recorded as unknown rather than inferred from the publisher.

Image Archive

Official Artwork

Documented Use

Discourse & Debates

• Intersex describes innate variations in sex characteristics. It is not itself a gender identity, and intersex people may have any gender identity or sexual orientation. ^{[2] [10]}
• Carpenter has discussed Budweiser UK's 2019 campaign as an instance of the loss of control that comes with public-domain circulation. The position is his, and is not presented here as a community-wide consensus on CC0. ^[2]

The original resource was revised on 20 June 2019 to replace earlier terminology and to add Carpenter's explanation of the change. He sets out the history of the word hermaphrodite, records that Intersex Human Rights Australia has long held that the term is best used only by people born with variations of sex characteristics, and notes that some people reclaim it while others find it offensive. The design was not altered. ^{[6] [2]}

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Official 2013 construction

• The official artwork, reproduced from the 900 by 600 vector published with the resource page: circle centred at 450, 300, radius 147, stroke 53.625, #7902AA on #FFD800. ^[1] · Credit: Designed by Morgan Carpenter, 2013. Dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. · Published by OII Australia; now hosted by InterAction for Health and Human Rights · CC0 1.0
• IranPride entering Vondelpark during Amsterdam Pride Walk, 29 July 2017. · Credit: Photograph by JoopeA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
• The intersex flag at the fifth Pride Serbia, Academic Park, Belgrade, 29 June 2019, alongside the rainbow, transgender and labrys lesbian flags. ^[9] · Credit: Photograph by Bojan Cvetanović, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0