definitely not a ribbon... it's a garter. The photos are not indicative of any species for sure, but he looks like a t.s.parietalis to me. That snake is too small to visually sex just by looking at it.... to visually sex that snake at all you would need good detailed shots of the sides and bottom of the tail. Even then, it's debatable... You can only be confident about visually sexing a mature adult snake. I am not sure how everyone's looking at him and saying "male"... there is no way to tell! I have young females that look just like that