The Long Road to a Trans Flag Emoji, and Why It Matters

The pink, blue and white-striped flag will be added to the Unicode Standard this fall after years of lobbying

The first time Google creative Tea Uglow submitted a proposal for a transgender pride flag emoji to the Unicode Consortium in 2016, the mysterious organization that oversees the approval and creation of the new emojis that show up in your phone with each update, it was denied. Then on June 29, 2017—Pride weekend—activist Bianca Rey, trans flag creator Monica Helms, programmer Chadwick Cipiti, and Dr. Ted Eytan submitted a seven-page request that noted a rainbow flag had been added the previous year.

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