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

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

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