Flags (and other graphics) talk. ~Sevan

First two random graphics I've come across recently. *I didn't create these*

The "transgender umbrella" hehehe. I LOVE this because first...I love graphics. Second...I dig words. I found this because I was looking around for a graphic that would fit into the presentation that Cyndi, myself and a few others from our support group are doing for the LGBT youth center on Friday. I wanted to have visuals that would help them to understand in a 101 kind of way...what we're saying. Who we are.

This one I put as a link because it's HUGE and some of it's smaller parts are really hard to see. So it links to the larger image if you want to see that. (opens in new window)

Onto flag talk. For as long as I've been trans* I've heard peple complain about the trans* flag:

It's baby blue, baby pink and white. (just in case that's not how it shows up on your screen) and the biggest issue with it seems to be the "baby" colors. We're all adults (mainly) and the baby colors seem to bother people. At meetings flag discussions will crop up. Online flag discussions pop up. It dies down and no one has solutions but I often hear "ew. I hate that flag" and it just comes up like popcorn. All the time. It's suppose to represent going from one side to the other, and the transitional process. The other piece is that no matter which way you hang it, it's always right which is to represent how people who have transitioned now feel "right".

There's an alternate flag but it's not as well known or as frequently seen:

Biggest issue people have with that flag is first...it doesn't make that much sense to some folks. It also looks alot like the bisexual flag:

So I decided to do something about it. It's not like the creators of those flags had a degree in flag making. They were just people who decided to create a banner they could be proud of, and that made sense to them. So I made one that makes sense to me. A dark blue that goes to a darker pink up top represents male to female, the purple stripe down the middle represents those who are non binary (and blue and pink make purple) and then the pink to blue on the bottom represents female to male. I looked at it until my eyes crossed while I tried to find just the right shades of color so it looked right, and didn't have the same shades as the bi flag. These colors can make your eyes cross when they're wrong and clashing! I know...I've discovered this the hard way!

I shared this with my local group and so far everyone has been really positive about it. I might be making a banner for us to march behind in Pride!!! We have one already but...we can't seem to track it down. See:

This banner was made by six of us who used to meet pretty regularly. It was led by the guy on the right who's holding the banner. He stopped leading the grou, and we kinda fell apart until the center opened up meetings and Cyndi and I started faciliating. We've tried to get this back from him, and he's offered it...but we've just not been able to make it work. He either forgets, or we forget, or he's working when we come into town...any number of reasons why it's not quite worked out for us to get it back from him.

Then I started thinking...hmm. Maybe this shouldn't be the banner we march behind anyway. It doesn't represent the people who are in the group now...maybe they should be able to make their own banner to proudly march behind. And so...maybe we will. We probably will. And it might be my flag concept that we create! That'd be pretty darn neat. :)