Combination of boy/girl traditional colours
Traditional colour of girls
Triumphs in one’s journey
Traditional colour of boys
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This transgender flag was designed by Johnathan Andrew (“Captain John”) on the trans-man website Adventures in Boyland, in 1999.
It consists of seven stripes in pink and blue, with white lines between them, and features a male/female combination symbol in the top left corner in lavender with a black outline.
The original description for the flag read:
“And finally, an AiB Exclusive—the Transgender Pride Flag (c)1999. Yes, indeedy—it’s about time we had our own symbol to represent the community, ain’t it? Bears have theirs. Leathermen have theirs. Why can’t we have ours? And might we say that we feel these designs, designed by your friendly neighborhood Captain, embodies all aspects of our identities.
Whether we’re transgender or transsexual, going from male (blue) to female (pink) or from female (pink) to male (blue), or just somewhere in between, both flag designs capture the subtlties and the strengths of our spirits (and the white accents in between the lines are the—supposedly—the little triumphs that happen upon us during our journeys to become whole (the flag as a whole)).
The lavender-colored sex symbol—not to be confused with The Artist Currently Not Known as Purple’s symbol—can also designate FtM/MtF/or Intersexed/Both/Shifting. As you can see, both flag designs/symbols can be used to encompass all types of gender variation. Hell, who knows, maybe it just might catch on (and Cpt. John will be elated—even more so when he get [sic] credit for the design).”
Andrews commented around 2015 that at the time of the design, he could not find a transgender pride flag and decided to design his own, but never had the funds to have it produced. As such, the more well-known transgender flag designed by Monica Helms, also designed in 1999, became popular.