Intersex Pride Flag

Author: Sexual Diversity
Author Contact: Sexual Diversity (SexualDiversity.org)
Published: 14th Nov 2022 - Updated: 17th Nov 2022
Peer-Reviewed Publication: N/A
Additional References: LGBTQ+ Pride Flags Publications

Summary: The intersex flag created by Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia in 2013 is a pride flag designed to represent intersex individuals and community.

Main Document

Intersex people, the older term for this condition is hermaphroditism, are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".

Intersex is a general term used for a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the boxes of "female" or "male." For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside but having mostly male-typical anatomy on the inside. Or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be between the usual male and female types. For example, a girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris or lacking a vaginal opening; a boy may be born with a notably small penis or a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia. Or a person may be born with mosaic genetics, so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY.

Sometimes doctors do surgeries on intersex babies and children to make their bodies fit binary ideas of "male" or "female." But, just like with non-intersex people, that doesn't mean that's the gender identity they'll grow up to have. It has been estimated about 1-2 in 100 people born in the U.S. are intersex.

The Intersex Pride Flag had existed since 2013, when Morgan Carpenter, then co-chair of Intersex Human Rights Australia, created and launched it. Unimpressed with some other symbols for intersex individuals, Carpenter wanted a flag "that is not derivative but is yet firmly grounded in meaning," and he eventually landed on the version we know today. Various media and human rights organizations have utilized the flag.

Carpenter said of the flag, "We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolizes the right to be who and how you want to be."

In 2021, the intersex flag was incorporated into the Progress Pride version of the rainbow pride flag by Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK.

What the Intersex Pride Flag Colors Mean

The Intersex Pride flag features a purple circle on a yellow background. Morgan Carpenter, the designer of the flag, used yellow and purple because the colors are seen as gender-neutral, and the circle represents wholeness and completeness.

Intersex Pride Flag

Image of the Intersex flag that uses hermaphrodite colors, non-derivative of gendered pink and blue with the purple circle symbolizing wholeness.