The overwhelming demand for the emoji may have helped push it over the top with the Unicode Consortium. “I really thank those people who put in all the work to get it done.”
“I definitely like it and I use it a lot,” she said. Helms wants the people who pushed for the Transgender Pride Flag emoji to know she is grateful for their persistence. In January of 2020, Unicode officially accepted the group’s most recent proposal, adding the transgender-themed emoji alongside symbols like fondue, polar bear, and teapot, making it easier than ever to ask a friend to dip things in melted cheese to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility this Friday. As AdWeek reported earlier this year, Google employee Tea Uglow first proposed a Transgender Pride Flag emoji in 2016, with more co-signers joining her each year thereafter. “I’m an old person, so they’re not big into emoji, my old friends.”Įven though Helms was a signatory on the 2019 proposal to add the Transgender Pride Flag to Unicode, she says that she “had nothing to do with promoting it.” That work fell to the small group of transgender advocates and tech employees who championed its adoption. “People are a little conservative in using it, I guess - at least my friends are,” she said. Sadly, though, Helms, who is 69, doesn’t receive the Transgender Pride Flag emoji nearly often enough from her peers.
