Transgender Pride Flag with Transgender Symbol
Identity Pride Flag · 2016–present (earliest documented use)
Monica Helms's 1999 transgender pride flag charged with a large transgender symbol in white, fimbriated black. The symbol is Holly Boswell's, created in 1993, combining the Mars and Venus signs with a third branch for mixed gender identities; it entered Unicode at U+26A7. Who first combined the two, and when, is not documented. Its earliest recorded use is 2016. [1]
Key facts
- Designer
- Unknown
- First documented public use
- 17 June 2016, Baltimore Pride
- In use
- 2016–present (earliest documented use)
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Stripes
- 5
- Represented Identity
- transgender
Also known as
- Transgender flag with Boswell symbol
- Symbol variant of the transgender pride flag
- transgender
Status Variant
Archive categories Gender Identity Pride Flags
Overview
The variant combines two things that already existed. Holly Boswell, a transgender activist, created the transgender symbol in 1993: a combination of the astronomical signs for Mars and Venus, standing for male and female, with the addition of a third branch, an arrow crossed by an additional stroke, for mixed gender identities. Monica Helms designed the five-stripe transgender pride flag in 1999. At some point before June 2016 the symbol was placed on the flag in white, fimbriated black. No source located records who did that, or when. [1]
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- transgender
Documented in use in the United States, Sweden and Germany between 2016 and 2019. [1]
Creators
Attribution
- Primary Designer
- Unknown
Attribution notes
No source located names a designer for this variant, and none should be inferred. Two prior authorships are documented and are not the same thing as authorship of the combined flag: Holly Boswell created the transgender symbol in 1993, and Monica Helms designed the flag in 1999. Who first placed one on the other, and when, is undocumented. The variant appears in the record already in use, at Baltimore Pride in 2016. [1]
Origin
Undocumented. The earliest photograph located is from Baltimore in 2016, which records a use rather than an origin.
Dates & Chronology
- First public use
- 17 June 2016, Baltimore Pride
- Period in Use
- 2016–present (earliest documented use)
Tomislav Todorović cataloged eleven dated photographs of the variant in use between 2016 and 2019, each with a citation: Baltimore Pride in 2016; Malmö Pride in Sweden in 2016; Cleveland, Chicago and Olympia in 2017; the Berlin protests against the anti-LGBT "Demo für Alle" gathering in September 2017; Columbus and Munich in 2018; the Civil Registration Office Action in Berlin in October 2018, an event supporting a third gender option in official documentation; Transgender Day of Visibility in Winston-Salem in 2019, where it flew alongside the unmodified flag; and the Capital Pride Parade in Washington, D.C., in June 2019, where it flew alone. [1]
The symbol's encoding matters to the variant's spread: Boswell's design entered the Unicode Standard at version 4.1.0 as U+26A7, which made it typable, and it is the character used in the transgender flag emoji sequence. [1]
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Transgender Pride Flag
- Evolved from
- Transgender Pride Flag
A charged variant of the 1999 flag, not an independent design. The device it adds has its own author and predates the flag by six years.
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.
- Ancestor
- Transgender Pride Flag
- This record
- Transgender Pride Flag with Transgender Symbol
Colors & Symbolism
The field carries the meanings Helms gave it. The added symbol carries Boswell's: Mars and Venus for male and female, and a third branch, an arrow crossed by an additional stroke, for mixed gender identities. [1]
| Colour | Hex | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Light Blue | — | Boys, the traditional color for baby boys |
| Pink | — | Girls, the traditional color for baby girls |
| White | — | Nonbinary, gender fluid, transitioning, intersex, or no gender at all, and the symbol |
| Black | — | The fimbriation outlining the symbol |
This flag has no official digital palette, and no documented color values have been located.
No statement by Boswell herself has been located here, and no statement by anyone about why the symbol was added to the flag. Todorović's account of the symbol cites the BBC, which has not been read. [1]
No palette is specified for the variant. The base flag has no designer-issued palette either: its circulating values were set on Wikimedia Commons, the pink by an editor in 2012 working "based on verbal description and HuffingtonPost photo."
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Orientation
- horizontal
- Stripe Count
- 5
- Layout
- charged horizontal stripes
- Stripes (Top → Bottom)
- light blue, pink, white, pink, light blue
- Center Symbol
- Transgender symbol in white, fimbriated black
Described only as "a large transgender symbol in white, fimbriated black, upon the field." No dimensions or placement rules are documented. [1]
The five-stripe transgender pride flag, light blue and pink on either side of a central white stripe, with a large transgender symbol placed across the center in white outlined in black. The symbol is a circle with three branches: the Mars arrow, the Venus cross, and a third arm combining the two, an arrow crossed by an additional stroke.
Usage & Adoption
- Geographic Usage
- United States, Sweden, Germany
- Online Usage
- The symbol it carries, U+26A7, is the character used in the transgender flag emoji sequence.
- Event Usage
- Baltimore Pride 2016, Malmö Pride 2016, Cleveland Pride 2017, Chicago Pride 2017, Capital City Pride, Olympia 2017, Berlin protests against Demo für Alle, 2017, Columbus Pride 2018, Christopher Street Day Munich 2018, Civil Registration Office Action, Berlin 2018, Transgender Day of Visibility, Winston-Salem 2019, Capital Pride Parade, Washington 2019
- Current Status
- in use
Documented use runs from 2016 to 2019 in three countries, and appears alongside the unmodified flag as often as apart from it. [1]
Image Archive
The Variant in Use
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Discourse & Debates
Common confusions
- Frequently reproduced as though it were the standard transgender pride flag. It is a charged variant; the plain five-stripe design is the one Helms made.
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 8 sources
Reference
- 1. Transgender flags (Monica Helms transgender flag: Variant). Tomislav Todorović, on Flags of the World, edited by Randy Young. Flags of the World (FOTW) (2021-07-18). Accessed 2026-07-31
Image file page
- 2. File:2016.06.17 Baltimore Pride, Baltimore, MD USA 6698 (34573762763).jpg. Ted Eytan. Wikimedia Commons. Accessed 2026-07-31
- 5. File:Protest gegen die Demo für Alle vor dem Kanzleramt in Berlin 02.jpg. C.Suthorn. Wikimedia Commons (2017-09-15). Accessed 2026-07-31
- 4. File:End of pride 02 - Cleveland Pride 2017 (38179008771).jpg. Tim Evanson. Wikimedia Commons (2017-06-24). Accessed 2026-07-31
- 3. File:Malmö Pride (28826883725).jpg. Maria Eklind. Wikimedia Commons (2016-08-06). Accessed 2026-07-31
- 7. File:Transgender day of visibility at Starbucks.jpg. Breawycker. Wikimedia Commons (2019-03-31). Accessed 2026-07-31
- 6. File:Aktion Standesamt 2018 Abschlusskundgebung vor dem Kanzleramt in Berlin 43.jpg. C.Suthorn. Wikimedia Commons (2018-10-13). Accessed 2026-07-31
- 8. File:122.GayPrideParade.WDC.8June2019 (48055274897).jpg. Elvert Barnes. Wikimedia Commons (2019-06-08). Accessed 2026-07-31
Image Sources
- Rendering
- Approximate rendering
- Drawn over the 1999 flag’s stripes and colors to the only description on record, "a large transgender symbol in white, fimbriated black, upon the field." No designer’s specification exists, and no source documents the charge’s size or placement, so those are the archive’s and carry no authority. Not a photograph, and not evidence of any particular flag. · Credit: Archive rendering, Encycloflaggia · Flags of the World, Transgender flags · approximate
- Baltimore Pride, the earliest documented use of the variant. Ted Eytan photographed it at 13:14; the Flickr set, filename and Commons category say 17 June 2016, while the description field and the EXIF say 17 June 2017. [1][2] · Credit: Ted Eytan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons
- Malmö Pride, Sweden, 6 August 2016. The frame carries the transgender, genderqueer, asexual and pansexual flags together. [3] · Credit: Maria Eklind, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons
- Cleveland Pride, 24 June 2017. [4] · Credit: Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons
- Protest against the "Demo für Alle" gathering, in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, 15 September 2017. [5] · Credit: C.Suthorn / cc-by-sa-4.0 / commons.wikimedia.org · Wikimedia Commons
- The closing rally of Aktion Standesamt 2018 in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, 13 October 2018, an action supporting a third gender option in official documentation. [6] · Credit: C.Suthorn / cc-by-sa-4.0 / commons.wikimedia.org · Wikimedia Commons
- A Starbucks in Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, flying two flags for Transgender Day of Visibility, 31 March 2019. This is the instance Todorović describes as the variant "hoisted together with unmodified version." [1][7] · Credit: Breawycker, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons
- The Capital Pride Parade, Washington, D.C., 8 June 2019, the instance Todorović marks as the variant "used alone." [1][8] · Credit: Elvert Barnes, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons