Mister B Intersex Progress Pride Flag 90 x 150 cm

The original intersex flag is a yellow base with a purple ring in the centre. The colours purple and yellow were used in the design as an intentional counterpoint to the more traditionally gendered colours blue and pink. The designer is Australian Morgan Carpenter, who says the ring in the design is a symbol of being whole and unbroken. It is meant to offer a meaningful alternative to how intersex folks have been represented and treated by the medical establishment and broader society.

Someone who may identify as intersex could be of any of a variety of experiences. When we are born, the hospital assigns our gender identity based on our external genitalia but also considers other sex characteristics. The four characteristics that a person’s sex, and in turn gender, is based on are external genitalia, internal genitalia and gonads or ovaries, hormones and chromosomes. For many folks, the four characteristics line up in a way that is expected from our doctors. For example, a baby born with a penis and testes, testosterone and XY chromosome pattern is assigned male and society assume them to identify as a boy. Not everyone assigned male at birth is born with these four characteristics lining up in this same way. Many people are born with any of these four characteristics lining up differently. This is intersex.

The Intersex Progress Pride Flag is a way of showing pride in and support for intersex folks who, like other identities within LGBTQ+ communities, have suffered discrimination and violence based on society’s gender and sexual norms and expectations.