Monica Helms is an author, activist, and veteran of the United States Navy who created the best-known transgender flag in 1999. That bit of history lives locally as this flag was first flown publicly at the Phoenix Pride Parade in August 2000.
A Phoenix native, Helms was born in 1951 and raised in a military family in Arizona. She served in the Navy from 1970 - 1978 as a submariner. Over a decade later, and after leaving the Navy, she started transitioning and taking hormones.
Photo Credit: Nick Olza / The Republic
Helms had joined the Phoenix chapter of the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. in 1996. After transitioning, she reapplied as "Monica" in 1998 but received heavy pushback, including being directed to join a more generic veteran's group for women. After months of strength and tenacity, she prevailed and became the first woman to enter the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc.
Her grit and perseverance are what sets her apart. Helms's commitment to transgender visibility and equity has greatly helped transgender veterans' activism. She founded the Transgender American Veterans Association in 2003 and remained president until 2013. With the creation of the transgender flag, Helms gave a unifying emblem to the transgender movement.
In an interview in 2022 with Folx Health, she shares, "I was having dinner with Michael Page, who created the bisexual pride flag, and he said, "You know, the trans community could use a flag," and so I said, "Well, okay." So about two weeks later, I woke up one morning, and the idea hit me. I got up and drew [the flag] out on a piece of paper. A week later, I had the first transgender flag, and I took it everywhere."
The first place she took it - Phoenix Pride in 2000. She explained what the colors meant. The light blue color is the traditional color for boys, the pink color for girls, and the white color in between is for "all people who are transitioning or non-binary, [those who] have nothing to do with the binary system."
Twenty-three years later, Helms' transgender flag is recognized across the globe, flying at pride parades, displayed in windows, and a leading symbol for transgender visibility and activism. She secured the original transgender flag's historical and cultural significance by donating it to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2014.
In an interview in 2019 with the Arizona Republic, she mused, "It's a symbol that will live on long after I'm gone. I want people to know that it's a part of our history and rally around it. ... I've gotten to see my baby mature."
We applaud Monica Helms, an icon living, for her contribution to advancing equality for the transgender community. Her Arizonan roots make us fly the transgender flag even higher!
Sources: Patrick Saunders, 2009, First Person - Monica Helms, transsexual Navy Veteran, Creative Loafing, LLC. Accessed August 07, 2023, <https://creativeloafing.com/content-198674-First-Person--Monica-Helms,-transsexual-Navy-veteran>Garrett Mitchell, 2019, Monica Helms, creator of the transgender flag, is 'still amazed' to see it displayed, The Republic azcentral.com, Accessed August 07, 2023, <https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/events/2019/04/07/phoenix-woman-transgender-betsy-ross-created-iconic-flag/3343427002/>A Conversation with Living Legend Monica Helms, Creator of the Transgender Flag, 2022, Folx, Accessed August 07, 2023, <https://www.folxhealth.com/library/a-conversation-with-living-legend-monica-helms-creator-of-the-transgender-flag>