English: This image is part of the Only Yes Means Yes campaign, a campaign to raise awareness about active consent, communication, and rape. It was created based on a graphic that was intended for a Fetlife group in support of this campaign and ultimately rejected by the group. Joreth took the basic concept of a Y in a circle with the slogan around the circle and came up with this final design. The group sprang up around the phrase when Joreth mentioned it in a blog reaction to a Fetlife member's story about sexual assault within the Fetlife community. Although this symbol sprang up from a discussion in the BDSM community, the concept is applicable to all people and is not intended to be kink-specific.

Yes Means Yes was originally a book about rape awareness, rape culture, feminism, and female sexual empowerment called "Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World Without Rape " by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. The idea of the concept is that only active consent equals consent. People must actively consent to sexual activity or else it doesn't count as consent. Passive consent is too easily mistaken for unspoken non-consent and active consent makes people feel in control of their own sexuality.

Several variations have created, including: making the Y red, to match the red colored title of the book that inspired the symbol; changing the black circle to a patterned black circle; coloring it black and blue stripes from the BDSM Pride flag; replacing the solid black circle with a black version of the BDSM Triskelion; removing the bottom "No Always Means No" and instead repeating the top "Only Yes Means Yes"; shortening the phrase to "Yes Means Yes" from the book; and using a red Y by itself without any circles or words.