Transgender activism group adopts lobster emoji for advocacy

PORTLAND, Maine – A transgender activism group is promoting use of Maine’s lobster emoji while it rallies for an emoji to represent the transgender community.

The Portland Press Herald reports the group is urging supporters to use the lobster for now, which can display both male and female anatomy.

The group Lobsters Against Transphobia launched an online petition last month to push the non-profit Unicode Consortium, which controls the release of emojis, to create an emoji of the pink and blue flag commonly used to represent transgender communities.

British author and activist Charlie Craggs popularized the new lobster campaign. However, a number of groups and individuals have been actively pushing for a transgender flag emoji in recent years.

Equality Maine, Maine’s largest LGBTQ organization, says it hadn’t previously heard of the campaign.

___

Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com