Transgender flag emoji petition receives 2,000+ signatures

The campaign, launched by Charlie Craggs, accuses Unicode of transphobia and being deaf to one of the most requested emojis on social media.

At the time of writing, the proposal stood at over 2,171 signatures -  closing in on a target of 2,500.

Citing the lack of representation for trans people, the proposal points out: “Emojis are a way for the world to connect, and trans people shouldn’t be left out of the conversation.”

A proposal for a transgender flag emoji was not shortlisted for Unicode version 12.0, much to the disdain of the trans community.

The radio silence of Unicode to add such a symbol has drawn outrage from the transgender community.

“Unicode granted the Lobster emoji proposal, which argued that people suffered ‘frustration and confusion’ at having to use a shrimp or crab emoji in instead of a lobster. Imagine if that was your gender.” 

In response, the community has decided to claim the new lobster emoji as a symbol to represent transgender people.

And this is due to the fact that lobsters can be Gynandromorphic, having both female and male characteristics.

The petition comments ”So we’re going to take it as our symbol until we get the Trans emoji we deserve..”

While there is no way to represent the transgender community via emoji, homosexuals do have their own pride flag emoji.