The Transgender Pride Flag Emoji is now in Unicode Emoji 13.0

Announced January 29, 2020

Information for members of the media

• Link to the official proposal that was adopted by Unicode.
• Full list of authors from the official proposal (alphabetical order)
  • Alda Vigdís Skarphéðinsdóttir (she, hers), Berlin, Germany (Independent software consultant) – @AldaVigdis
  • Bianca Rey (she, hers), Washington, DC, USA (Chair, Capital TransPride) – @​BiancaRey
  • Chad Cipiti (he, him), Washington, DC, USA (Capital TransPride Producers) – @​chaddashwick
  • Hannah Simpson (she, hers), Washington, DC USA (Writer, speaker, comedian, advocate) – ​@Hannsimp
  • Monica Helms (she, hers), Atlanta, GA, USA (creator of the Transgender Pride Flag) – ​@MF_Helms
  • Tea Uglow (she, hers), Sydney, Australia, (Google) – @​teaelleu
  • Ted Eytan, MD (he, him), Washington, DC, USA (physician, Capital TransPride Producers) – @​tedeytan
• Additional help from:
  • Seb Grubb (he, him), San Francisco, CA, USA (Google) – @​seb_uk
  • Jennifer Daniel (she, hers), Berkeley, CA, USA (Google) – @​jenniferdaniel
  • Olli Jones (he, him), London, UK (Microsoft) – [email protected]

Media Contacts

• UK – Olly Mitchell – IG:NailitOfficial – email
• UK – Helen (@mimmymum) – parent of trans kid / trans ally / networker /cheerleader
• US – Bianca Rey – @BiancaRey
• AUS – Tea Uglow – @teaelleu

Feel free to contact me to be connected to one of the media contacts above. We request that people with lived experience (listed above) be highlighted in pieces covering this topic. I do not have lived experience as a person who is transgender.

Official Unicode announcement

The Unicode Blog: Unicode Emoji 13.0 — Now final for 2020

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A post shared by Ted Eytan, MD, MS, MPH (@tedeytan)

History and Archive (no longer being updated)

• Multiple valid technical submissions sent to @Unicode, according to their defined process, beginning 2017, and re-submitted 2018
  • See: Transgender Pride Flag Emoji Submission for inclusion in the Unicode Standard for 2019 (Update 12: Pride Month, Technical Update, Now it’s a Social Movement) – Ted Eytan, MD
  • Strictly adhered to: Submitting Emoji Character Proposals
• Receipt confirmed by @Unicode, with one (1) single email in follow-up on January 8, 2018
  • See: Transgender Pride Flag Emoji Submission for inclusion in the Unicode Standard for 2019 (Update 12: Pride Month, Technical Update, Now it’s a Social Movement) – Ted Eytan, MD
• Requested changes made and submitted for inclusion in Unicode 12, on time, March, 2018
  • No response from @Unicode
• Unicode 11 released March, 2018, without mention of the transgender pride flag (See: My Thoughts on Emoji Recently Added, v11.0, without #Transvisibility, without full #LGBTQ inclusion – Ted Eytan, MD)
• Change.org petition launched with 5,000+ signatures (See: Petition · Unicode : Unicode, Google and Facebook: Why is there still no Trans flag emoji? · Change.org)
• Media campaign launched in August, 2018 – #ClawsOutForTrans – (See: claws out | Nail It shop)
• Unicode 12 released March, 2019, without mention of the transgender pride flag (See: Unicode 12.0.0)
  • Symbols included in Unicode 12 include: orangutan, skunk, sloth, otter (See: Emoji Recently Added, v12.0)
• Based on the above, offer and acceptance of assistance to resubmit and listen to concerns (see below)
• Support offered in February, 2019 to review, enhance, and resubmit the proposal for the March, 2019 deadline
  • I’ll add here – really good, helpful, knowledgable, empathetic support – thank you @seb_uk @jenniferdaniel as well as @teaelleu @BiancaRey who continue to be leaders I admire.
• We’ve conveyed our concerns (as stated above) about the process (poor communication, favors those with corporate resources, doesn’t respect the dignity of minority populations). We’ve been told “you have allies in Unicode” 🙂
• The new revision is posted here, here, and below
• An additional revision was sent to Unicode with the addition of a specific footnote on March 12, 2019
• An additional revision of the revision was sent to Unicode at their request on March 13, 2019, with the link to the ZIP file removed (to allow for posting on their site)
• The proposal is now officially in the Unicode document register and can be found on this page, with direct link here.
• Global social networks are now adopting into their own emoji libraries, ahead of final adoption into the standard
• The Transgender Pride Flag is accepted as Draft Candidate Emoji for 2020! – Ted Eytan, MD (October 19, 2019)

https://twitter.com/jeremyburge/status/1143873754193416192

Ongoing media, social media conversations, etc

With the release of Unicode 12, the omission of this emoji was again apparent, globally, across the social media space

BUT STILL NO TRANS FLAG EMOJI ⁉️😩

C’mon @unicode – the #trans community is under constant attack. They’re being abused, trolled, and silenced at unprecedented levels, and you can’t even give them a little flag to wave in defiance to say ‘I’m #StillHere’?https://t.co/roxKsr5DI7

— Helen🏳️‍⚧️✊🏻💕 (@mimmymum) February 7, 2019

I have consolidated as many of the tweets as I can capture into these twitter moments (I have to use more than one because there’s a limit of 98 tweets per moment)

• Twitter Moment: Transgender Pride Flag Emoji, Part 1
• Twitter Moment: Transgender Pride Flag Emoji, Part 2
• Twitter Moment: Transgender Pride Flag Emoji, Part 3
• Twitter Moment, Transgender Pride Flag Emoji, Part 4

• Article in @FastCompany, March 2019: See: Thanks for Telling Our Story, in Unicode finally responds to lack of a trans pride flag emoji – FastCompany – Ted Eytan, MD

• Article in @AIGAeyeondesign, April 2019: See: Just Read (and thanks for publishing my photos): Inside the Hyper-specific Quest to Add a Transgender Emoji | | Eye on Design – Ted Eytan, MD

• Article in @VICE – see Just Read and adding comments from our experience: “We Just Got 230 New Emojis, But Still No Trans Flag” – VICE

• Just Watched: Our Transgender Pride Flag Emoji Proposal is Now in a Documentary: Where Emojis Come From (November, 2019)

.

https://twitter.com/teaelleu/status/1123981429002653697

Why this matters

#Transgender Pride Flag accepted as draft candidate for 2020! #Transemoji #Transvisibility @unicode h/t @teaelleu @BiancaRey @chaddashwick @aldavigdis https://t.co/NgOWT86Jzh

— Ted Eytan, MD, MS, MPH (@tedeytan) May 2, 2019

Accepted as Draft Candidate emoji for 2020!
55 emoji characters :
https://t.co/ik1Vtb7AQm
139 emoji ZWJ sequences: inc. gender-neutral sequences and trans flag
https://t.co/X1HUnYEJQt
https://t.co/o9IBZhPETX
https://t.co/NbgeAcSL50

— Mark Davis ☕ (@mark_e_davis) May 1, 2019

A selection of articles, tweets, and other events in society today underscore the power of inclusion and disempowerment of exclusion. In the 1980’s it was said “Silence = Death” ; in this century we say “Visibility = Life”

The transgender pride flag signifies visibility in a world that’s learning to love better. A sticker may seem like a small innovation but it means a lot to a community that’s been marginalized.

This year at Capital Trans Pride, we lamented that the only emojis we could send to each other are the rainbow pride flag.

“My reason for wanting a trans flag emoji is so that a trans individual can feel a sense of belonging and visibility when using technology to communicate.”
Bianca Rey (@BiancaRey), Co-Chair, Capital Trans Pride, Washington, DC (Trans Pride Sticker Set Site)

Photo Friday: Silence = Death, Visibility = Life, Washington, DC USA

All of the images and content above are @CreativeCommons licensed for use.

See links below or click through here for a list. Comments and questions welcomed below.

A list of the posts on this blog about this topic can be found here.

Lastly, we wouldn’t need to talk about bathrooms at all if we acted like adults, washed our hands + minded our own business instead of trying to clock others.

Going by track record, I’d feel safer in a bathroom w/ a trans woman than a powerful male executive any day of the week.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 20, 2019