New Intersex-Inclusive Flag Created In Time For Pride

U.K.-based charity group Intersex Equality Rights has introduced a new, intersex-inclusive Pride flag this week. The flag, created by Valentino Vecchietti, adds a new segment to the widely adopted “Pride Progress” flag.

💛💜#intersex inclusion visibility and representation is the road to equality and we need #allyship https://t.co/Y46zReadfk

— Intersex Equality Rights UK (@WeAreIERUK) June 7, 2021

The update adds a yellow triangle to the flag with a purple circle at its center. The creator of the original, intersex Pride flag, Morgan Carpenter, says that the circle symbolizes wholeness and completeness. “We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity,” Carpenter explains, “and this symbolizes the right to be who and how we want to be.”

The Pride flag has seen many iterations since the original, rainbow flag debuted in 1978. The first flag’s creator, Gilbert Baker, sadly passed in 2017, but strongly encouraged the revisions to his design to promote inclusivity. In 2017, Philadelphia unveiled a new flag designed by Amber Hikes that included black and brown stripes along with the usual rainbow to add BIPOC representation to the iconic symbol. In 2018, designer Daniel Quasar built upon the foundations of the Philly Flag, adding light blue, pink, and white to create the “Pride Progress Flag” for transgender inclusion. Vecchietti’s addition now brings the I in LGBTQIA+ to the popularized symbol of Pride.

About 1.7 percent of the world’s population is born intersex—roughly the same amount of people that are born with red hair. Defined as someone with sexual characteristics differing from societal norms of male or female, intersex people are a strong and vocal group in the LGBTQ community. Advocacy groups have fought against nonconsensual medical surgeries often administered to intersex youth and even infants that intend to make them match societal biological norms. Intersex Awareness Day, celebrated on October 26, is the internationally recognized day to educate and bring attention to the stigma surrounding intersex bodies and the unchecked atrocities that occur against them.

Intersex Equality Rights U.K. encourages anyone to DM them through Instagram to request a high resolution jpeg of the design that can be printed on to flags. If you’re interested, contact them ASAP to get your intersex-inclusive flags ready for Pride 2021!