Thank you @FastCompany and @kschwabable for reporting on the origins and experience around proposing a transgender pride flag emoji for the @Unicode character set. To see the details of this process, I’ve documented our work to date here.
I was not interviewed for the piece, as requested, because it’s important for people with lived experience to be the interviewees. Material I’ve posted here was used, as allowed under the Creative Commons license under which it is published.
For (Bianca) Rey, a trans flag emoji is crucial to every member of the trans community feeling legitimized and seen. She says she feels lucky to have access to resources because she lives in a big city, but others elsewhere in the country don’t have that—and she believes an emoji is a great way to help those people feel like they’re part of the community as well.
“A simple flag means so much to myself and my community… to make [people] feel that there’s a community outside of wherever they are that are there for them,” she says. “It’s a nice way to send a message that you’re visible. I’m visible. Not only that we’re visible in this space, but we’re visible everywhere.”
As it was said to me, I think we are witnessing the evolution of language through processes like this. We have to always ask the question about whether language should be inclusive of all humanity or not. My answer is yes, because it’s the way it has to be, and disk space is cheap, lives are precious 🙂 .
Thank you @kschwabable @FastCompany for asking the question of whether language belongs to all humans. We already resolved this in health care – #AllHumansRespectedAndRepresented #TransVisibility ✌️❤️🌎 h/t @Unicode @teaelleu @BiancaRey @chaddashwick https://t.co/emjM8LkVO5
— Ted Eytan, MD, MS, MPH (@tedeytan) April 5, 2019
Since 2017, trans activists have tried to convince Unicode to make the trans pride flag an emoji. So far, it has rejected their annual application.
Source: Unicode finally responds to lack of a trans pride flag emoji