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New Emojis for 2021 Include Woman With Beard, Mixed-Race Gay Couples

Emojis
Image via Unicode Cosortium

These symbols add inclusion to 21st-century communication.

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New emojis for 2021 were recently announced, with additions related to gender variance and interracial pairings.

Smartphone users will have 217 additional emojis at their fingertips next year, the volunteer-based, emoji-creating Unicode Consortium announced last week. Two hundred emojis that are part of Emoji 13.1 are devoted to new iterations of mixed-race couples, including same-sex pairs. Seven completely new emojis will also be available, including "Heart on Fire," Mending Heart," "Face Exhaling," "Face in Clouds," "Face With Spiral Eyes," "Woman With Beard," and "Person With Beard."

Emoji 13.0 also made inroads with queer inclusion, with Unicode announcing earlier this year that the trans flag and trans symbol were being added; that version is available on Android and rolling out on iOS.

"For trans folk being able to say 'transgender' in emoji and to be out and proud and let our allies visibly support us is a huge deal for our community," trans Google employee Tea Uglow said at the time of the 13.0 announcement, PinkNews reports.

Couples

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Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.
Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.