Your Guide to Sex & Gender Symbols: Male, Female, & More

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Plus, symbols that represent groups under LGBTQIA+

Co-authored by Inge Hansen, PsyD and Eric McClure

Last Updated: January 28, 2026 Fact Checked

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Male, Female, & Transgender Symbols

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Modern Sex and Gender Signs

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Alternative Symbols

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Where do sex signs come from?

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Ever wonder where those weird circle symbols for “man” and “woman” come from? We did too! The origin of these symbols is extremely fascinating, so it’s no wonder that they’d go on to inspire all kinds of different variations and riffs for other genders, sexualities, and identities. Below, we’ll inform you on traditional and modern sex signs, as well as some insights on how symbols, identity, and personal truth all feed into one another.

What are the male and female sex symbols?

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A collage of the most common symbols for different sexes and genders.

The original pictographs that were developed in the 1700s include the male symbol (♂), female symbol (♀), and transgender symbol (⚧). Later symbols include the logos for intersex, nonbinary, androgyne, gay, lesbian, and other sex and gender identities.

Section 1 of 4:

Original Symbols for Male, Female, & Transgender

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Male The male symbol (♂) depicts a circle with a line and arrow pointing to the top right. It’s based on the ancient astronomical symbol for Mars.^{[1]
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- Why Mars? The red planet is associated with the Roman god of war, Mars, and since violence, courage, and bravado are socially associated with men, it was chosen as the symbol for males.
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Female The female symbol (♀) is a circle with a cross extending from below. It’s the ancient astronomical symbol for Venus.^{[2]
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- Why Venus? In Roman mythology, Venus is the goddess of love, beauty, and desire. Women have historically been held up primarily as sex objects, so the connection was made.
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Transgender The transgender symbol (⚧) is a combination of the male and female symbols. In the top left, the two flourishes are combined to make a new, third addition. The transgender symbol used to be the symbol for Mercury (☿), but that’s no longer in use today.^{[3]
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- Why Mercury? Mercury is the Roman God of commerce and travel. As a God, Mercury was depicted as relatively androgynous, so he has historically been associated with gender fluidity and transgender people.

Section 2 of 4:

Newer Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Signs

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Intersex symbol The intersex symbol (⚥) is a combination of the male and female symbols. Intersex people have bodies that fall outside of the traditional binary of male/female.^{[4]
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- Some intersex people will use an alternative symbol (ⴲ) that depicts a cross inside of a circle.
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Nonbinary symbol There are a few nonbinary pictograms out there, but the most widely used one depicts a circle with a line sticking out of the top of it. The line terminates in an X, to symbolize the rejection of the gender binary. Nonbinary people do not identify with the binary model of gender and view themselves as neither man nor woman.^{[5]
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- There is no Unicode symbol for the nonbinary pictogram.
- The genderqueer community often uses the same pictograph. Sometimes they’ll use a “G” and “Q” that are interlocking.
- It’s rare, but some nonbinary people will use a comet (☄).
- Is nonbinary a gender? Transgender and diversity specialist Dr. Inge Hansen, PsyD, breaks it down like this: “Some people mistakenly believe that non-binary gender identity is not a true gender identity in itself, that it is merely a step on the road to a new binary gender, or that non-binary identities are exceedingly rare, but that’s just not true.”^{[6]
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An evolution of the term “androgynous,” the androgyne symbol (⚨) is a riff on the symbols for male and female. Androgyne is a type of nonbinary identity where a person is a mix of male and female.^{[7]
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Gay symbol The symbol for gay sexuality (⚣) depicts two male pictographs interlocking with one another. It is sometimes referred to as the “double Mars” sign.
- Why are some of the pictographs for sexualities? The lines between sex and gender have always been blurry and separate. When it comes to sexuality, most non-heterosexual identities have a similar pictograph. It often helps to have symbols and signs to take pride in when you’re outside of the traditional heterosexual and cisgender norms!.
The symbol for lesbian sexuality (⚢) is two interlocking female pictographs. It is often called the “double Venus” symbol.
The bisexual community often uses the transgender pictograph (⚧) since it depicts both male and female flourishes.^{[8]
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Research source} There are enough nonbinary sub-identities that many of them have their own pictographs so there isn’t a single universally accepted bisexual symbol. ^{[9]
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Agender has two symbols (∅ and ⊖). They both depict a circle with a line through it. Agender people do not identify with any gender at all, and they typically view themselves as an individual distinct from any gendered norms or prescriptions.^{[10]
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Asexual symbol There are two asexual symbols. The first, and most widely used symbol, is an ace of spades (♠). It’s a play on the shortened version of “asexual,” which is just “ace.” Many asexual people will use a hollow circle (○) instead, which is a riff on the fact that most sex signs have a circle in the center of the design. Asexual people do not experience “typical” sexual attraction.^{[11]
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- Many asexual people will use a heart (♥) instead of a spade to indicate they’re asexual but still experience romantic feelings.
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Travesti symbol The travesti symbol is identical to the male sex symbol, with two changes. First, it is mirrored so that the bar extends out of the top left instead of the top right. Also, instead of terminating in an arrow, the flourish ends with a perpendicular line. Travesti is a Latin American term for people who are born male but develop a female gender identity. It is considered a distinct identity from transgender since there are specific qualities unique to Latin America.^{[12]
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- There is no Unicode symbol for the travesti pictogram.
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Genderfluid symbol There is no single agreed-upon pictogram for genderfluidity. The most common design in use today is a variation on the intersex symbol (⚥) but with parallel extensions poking out of each side of the design. Often, these flourishes are curved to convey the natural fluidity of the identity, since genderfluid people shift between experiencing life as a man, woman, and/or nonbinary person.^{[13]
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- There is no Unicode symbol for the genderfluid pictograms.
- What’s the difference between nonbinary and genderfluid? Dr. Hansen explains, “At times, a person may shift from a binary to a non-binary identity or vice versa, but this is more a reflection of gender's ability to be fluid and less about what it means to be non-binary.”^{[14]
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Neutrois is a non-binary identity where you experience a neutral (or “null”) gender. Its original pictograph was the same as the non-binary symbol (∅), but these days, people primarily use a variation on the male and female symbols (⚲). Some people will flip the ⚲ upside down so that the bar sticks out of the top.^{[15]
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Intergender symbol The intergender symbol is a circle with two downward lines sticking out of the bottom right. One line has a perpendicular bar jutting out of the side, while the other has a bar that sticks back up. Intergender is a gender identity based on the experience of being intersex (intersex is just a biological identity for most people).^{[16]
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- Some people use the Unicode symbol 🜐 for intergender, but that’s not actually what the symbol normally looks like.

Section 3 of 4:

Alternative Sex Signs

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Male: Triangle The triangle (△) is a common alternative for the ♂ pictograph. It’s based on kinship charts, which display families and their ancestries like this.^{[17]
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- Some people will use ▽ to symbolize female, but that’s not a modern invention.
- In Europe, it’s common for bathrooms to use the triangle logos (△ and ▽) for restroom doors.
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Female: Circle The circle (○) is the kinship code for female. As a result, people will occasionally use a ○ for “female” but it’s not as common as the triangle symbol (△) is for men.^{[18]
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- Kinship charts don’t have a symbol for nonbinary or intersex people. Historically, researchers and anthropologists use a hollow square (□) whenever the sex of a person is unclear or unknown, though.
The male (🚹︎) and female (🚺︎) restroom symbols have grown popular enough that they’ve become universal symbols. They were originally created for bathrooms on British trains in the 1960s. The UK ultimately adopted the symbols for all of their public buildings and the rest is history!^{[19]
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Section 4 of 4:

The Origin of Sex Signs

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The sex signs come from planetary symbols crafted in the 1700s. The botanist and physician Carl Linnaeus is credited with coming up with the original sex symbols (called pictograms). He took the planetary symbols from classical astronomy for Mars (♂), Venus (♂), and Mercury (☿) and used them as shorthand for labelling the sex of flowers. Mars was male, Venus was female, and Mercury was for hermaphroditic/perfect flowers.^{[20]
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- Today, everyone (including botanists and doctors) use ⚥ instead of ☿ for both perfect flowers and transgender people.
- The planetary origins of the symbols are where we get the adage, “Women are from Venus, men are from Mars.”
- A note on the term “hermaphroditic:” The sex symbols originate in botany, where “hermaphroditic” refers to plants that possess both male and female reproductive organs. Historically, “hermaphrodite” has been used interchangeably with “transgender” or “intersex,” but it is now viewed as a slur when applied to people. It reduces a person's status as trans or intersex down to their sexual biology, and we know that gender isn’t based exclusively on sex, so it’s not used to describe people anymore.^{[21]
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