What does the Black stand for? (Patreon)

Recently I've been using this version of the Trans Pride Flag in my comics/art and I've been asked what the Black strip stands for.

Intuition tells me I'm not the first to add this particular bar, but in case this is the first time you're seeing this then I take all the credit! It was I who first coined this! Me! Me!

...ahem!

Anyway I got asked what the Black strip stands for and it took me a minute to decide.  Perhaps it should probably be the Trans Witch Pride Flag, the idea first came to me as I was working on a wand and penned the lines:

Black as a moonless night.

White as a flash of lightning.

Pink as a blooming flower.

Blue as a swift current.

Recently I've been studying Celtic art and was delighted to find myself staring at depictions of people from the late 7th century BC that were decidedly NonBinary:

and was thus inspired to put my own twist on it:

I think there's something here/there but I'm still not completely sure what it is.

In days past I would have leaped to identify the meaning behind that Black strip but as I've become a more seasoned artist I've come to understand that inspiration and answers take time to present themselves. I like to contemplate and mull things over. And after some time I realized what The Black stood for:

The Unknown.

This alludes to Transgender lives past, present, and future. We can't know exactly how many Trans folk there were in ancient times, anymore than we can know how many there will be. Some folk as they start to question their gender identity have vast stretches of not-knowing. And in the future who's to say what other additions and labels will be added to the pantheon of Queer and Gender terms?

I like the idea of paying homage and acknowledging the unknowable because - even though we're keen to sound like we know exactly what we're talking about - the conversation on gender has really only just begun and there is still a lot we can't know.

I'm excited by that!