A new class of emojis will be making their debut on smartphones this year including the long-awaited transgender flag and symbol. The iconic pink, white and blue trans pride flag emoji and the trans symbol emoji are two of the 117 new digital symbols that the Unicode Consortium will release in 2020.
In 2016, the rainbow pride flag was released, and just last year, new gender neutral emojis were added.
According to Business Insider, the addition of these emoji is the latest step taken in providing the LGBTQ community with equal representation in the virtual language of emoji, harnessed by smartphone users in text messages, social media posts, and phone contacts.
"Anytime we can make anyone feel more seen and included, it's a good thing," Jean-Marie Navetta, a spokesperson for a LGBTQ-inclusive family organization called PFLAG, told Business Insider in 2019. "We're starting to recognize when people need other ways to express themselves ... We are really thinking about this in ways we haven't in the past."
A full list of new emojis can be found here.