Monica F. Helms (born 8 March 1951) is an American
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
activist, author, and veteran of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. She is the creator of the
Transgender Pride Flag
The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and indi ...
.
Education
Helms received a General AA Degree and an AA in Industrial Television from Glendale Community College in Arizona in 1987 and graduated from
Chattahoochee Technical College
Chattahoochee Technical College (Chattahoochee Tech, CTC, or Chatt Tech) is a public technical college in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is governed by the Technical College System of Georgia and has eight campuses in the north-northwest metro-A ...
in 2018 with an AA Degree in Television Production Technology.
US Navy career
File:FS Key.jpg,
File:Key Patch.jpg, Key's Patch
File:USS Flasher (SSN-613).jpg,
File:Flasher Patch.jpg, Flasher's Patch
Helms served in the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1978, and was assigned to two submarines: (1972–1976) and (1976–1978).
During her time in the Navy, Helms began dressing as a woman while based in Charleston, South Carolina and says in an interview it was the "deepest, darkest secret in
erentire life".
She was reassigned to the San Francisco area in 1976, and said she "felt like
hecould be out in public as
erself.
Helms left the Navy in 1978, and joined her hometown's chapter of the
United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. in 1996.
After transitioning, Helms reapplied in 1998 to the Phoenix chapter of the veteran's group with the name "Monica" and received considerable push-back, including being referred to a more generic veteran's group for women rather than the submarine specific group. Helms eventually prevailed after a few months and is the first woman to ever join the organization.
Activism
Helms created the
Transgender Pride Flag
The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and indi ...
in 1999,
and it was first flown at a
Pride Parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
in Phoenix, Arizona in 2000.
Helms donated the original Transgender Pride Flag at the first ceremony honoring the addition of a collection of LGBT historical items at the
Smithsonian on August 19, 2014.
Helms founded the
Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) in 2003, and remained president until 2013. On May 1, 2004, TAVA sponsored the first ever Transgender Veterans March to the Wall. Fifty trans veterans arrived in DC and visited the
Vietnam Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those ...
to honor people they knew whose names are on The Wall. They also made history when they became the first openly transgender people to lay a wreath at the
Tomb of the Unknowns
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a historic monument dedicated to deceased U.S. service members whose remains have not been identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States. The World War I "Unknown" is a re ...
. They did it again in 2005.
Helms continues to advocate for transgender service members and veterans, as the end of the prolific
Don't Ask Don't Tell policy of the United States military did not change the status of transgender military personnel.
![Transgender Pride flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Transgender_Pride_flag.svg)
She was elected as a delegate to the
2004 Democratic National Convention
The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Car ...
in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first trans person elected to a DNC Convention from Georgia.
In June 2019, to mark the
50th anniversary of the
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modern
LGBTQ rights movement
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
, ''
Queerty
''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay-oriented lifestyle and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors.
History
''Queerty'' was founded by David ...
'' named her one of the Pride50 for "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elite ...
, acceptance and dignity for all
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
people".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helms, Monica
1951 births
Activists from Arizona
Activists from South Carolina
American LGBT military personnel
American women activists
Female United States Navy personnel
Flag designers
LGBT people from Arizona
LGBT people from South Carolina
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Living people
People from Sumter, South Carolina
Transgender military personnel
Transgender women
Transgender writers