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Transgender advocates wanted their own emoji. So, they're using the Maine lobster — for now.
British transgender activists have claimed the Maine lobster as their emoji — for now, anyway. (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

Transgender advocates wanted their own emoji. So, they're using the Maine lobster — for now.

British transgender activists have claimed the Maine lobster as their emoji, the Portland Press Herald reported.

For now, anyway.

Say what?

The decision was the brainchild of the group Lobsters Against Transphobia, which petitioned Unicode for a pink-and-blue flag emoji, the paper said. But for now, the group told allies to use the lobster as a stand-in emjoi.

Why a lobster? Because the critter can be a gynandromorph, the Press Herald said — or display both male and female characteristics.

“Emojis are a way for the world to connect and trans people shouldn’t be left out of the conversation,” the group said, according to the paper.

More from the Press Herald:

Trans advocates are jumping on board the online campaign by adding the lobster emoji to their Twitter handles, dressing up as lobsters during Trans Pride parades and decorating colorfully polished fingernails with lobster stickers. On Twitter, they have gathered under the single banner of #ClawsOutForTrans. [...]

The campaign is the brainchild of Charlie Craggs, a British author, activist and nail artist, but she is not the only one asking Unicode for a trans flag emoji. Another group of activists, including Washington, D.C., physician Ted Eytan and Georgia Navy veteran Monica Helms, who created the trans flag back in 1999, started asking Unicode for a trans flag emoji two years ago.

“I respect the frustration and creativity that has come together for #ClawsOutForTrans,” Eytan told the paper. “Successful social movements often have these elements. I am completely in support of their health, safety and enjoyment of life, made better through visible representation of their existence.”

The Maine lobster recently made its debut as an emoji along with more than 150 others, the Press Herald said.

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