Navy veteran opens up about how she created the trans pride flag

The Transgender Pride Flag is very well known today, with many recognizing its distinctive blue, white and pink stripes as representing the transgender community.

But did you know that it was actually built by a military veteran?

Navy veteran Monica Helms recently WysoIn an interview with the community-owned radio station , she talked about how a conversation with Michael Page, creator of the bisexual pride flag, inspired her to create a transgender pride flag.

“He said, ‘Hey, the trans community needs a flag,’ and I thought about it for a bit and he said, ‘But you have to keep it simple. The fewer stitches it has, the cheaper it will be for the seller,'” Helms explained.

At the time, the only flags in existence were the original rainbow pride flag created by Gilbert Baker, and the bisexual pride flag — of course, there are hundreds of flags out there now, but Helms started almost from scratch.

“It was about two weeks later, I woke up one morning and the image of a flag came to me. So I got up and drew it and said, ‘That looks great,'” Helms continued, adding that she worked with a bisexual pride flag manufacturer to create the first prototype.

People approached Helms to ask about the flag, and it continued to “get bigger and bigger” until it became a widely recognized symbol of the transgender community.

“It wasn’t until 2013 that I started seeing the flag and colors at Pride events around the world and I thought, ‘Wow, it’s trending. Everyone’s using it,'” Helms said.

Helms’ original transgender flag was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 2014, 15 years after she first created it, as an important piece of LGBTQ+ history.

As a transgender woman herself, Helms said she is thrilled to have been able to create something special for her community.

“I’m so happy to be given something to show pride and unite around being transgender and non-binary. Not only that, my flag started a tradition of people making their own flags. Now we have 92 different flags in our community, and I’d like to think I started it,” she said.