More Than Just a FlagMore Than Just a Flag

Trans Flag creator, trans activist and Navy veteran, Monica F. Helms shares the major events of her life, from childhood on. Included are her service in the U.S. Navy as a submariner, and her personal journey to discovering her true self as a trans woman, including the subsequent battles she fought with her civilian employer, Sprint. Helms recalls her creation of the Transgender Pride Flag in 1999, and her donation of the original to the Smithsonian in 2014. Monica details her founding of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) in 2003, where she went on to serve as president for ten years. Along with numerous other examples of her trans activism, including holding Atlanta's first TDOR event in 2000, Helms recounts lobbying state legislators in Arizona and Georgia, as well as in D.C., and being elected a delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. At times, funny, at others, necessarily sad, More Than Just A Flag is the story of a leader in the fight for transgender acceptance, at a time when the trans community was just coalescing and finding its voice.