Pride Progress flag redesigned to better include intersex people: ‘It is bringing joy’
1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits - around the same number born with red hair
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Intersex Equality Rights UK
The Pride flag has been given a 2021 makeover to better represent intersex people.
Featuring 11 coloured stripes and a purple circle over a yellow triangle, the new design is the work of Valentino Vecchietti, an intersex activist and columnist for British LGBTQ publication DIVA magazine.
Vecchietti is also a member of Intersex Equality Rights UK (IERUK) (a charity currently being established according to consortium.lgbt), and today told Attitude: “My intention and hope in creating this version of the pirde progress flag is simply that it brings my community joy and empowers us – and that it raises awareness and increases allyship.
“We really need to see it.”
As per IERUK, the new design incorporates the intersex flag itself, “designed by Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia.”
According to Amnesty, around 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, comparable to the number of people born with red hair.
“It is bringing joy”
In a post on the organisation’s Instagram account, a rep furthermore explained: “In 2017 under the leadership of American civil rights activist Amber Hikes, Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs developed the rainbow flag to incorporate black and brown stripes to include black, brown, and people of colour.
View this post on Instagram
“Building on that in 2018 Daniel Quasar redesigned the flag to include trans people, creating the Pride Progress flag.
“In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK developed the Pride Progress flag design to incorporate the intersex flag.”
They added that since revealing the design, “intersex people and allies from all over the globe have said it is bringing them joy to see intersex inclusion in the Pride Progress flag.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, ‘intersex people are born with a variety of differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy. There is a wide variety of difference among intersex variations, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.’
Designed by the late activist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the original Pride flag featured eight coloured stripes – but a six-colour version endured for decades. The trans flag, created by Monica Helms in 1999, features baby blue, baby pink and white.
Correction: On 10 June 2021, Vecchietti told Attitude: “We would like to apologise for our error in thinking that Tony Briffa shared the design credit for the intersex flag with Morgan Carpenter. This is incorrect, and Morgan Carpenter is in fact the sole creator of the intersex flag. In addition although Morgan Carpenter is part of Intersex Human Rights Australia, Morgan independently created this flag. We are all so grateful to Morgan Carpenter for creating this beautiful cultural symbol for our community. Thank you.”
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