Nothing really needs to be added to Unicode; vendors could already use: 🏳🌈 U+1F3F3, U+200D, U+1F308 WAVING WHITE FLAG, ZERO WIDTH JOINER, RAINBOW
credit to Shervin for the idea Mark <https://google.com/+MarkDavis> *— Il meglio è l’inimico del bene —* On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 7:26 PM, Noah Slater <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello! > > It is Pride Month and the US just legalised queer marriage in every state. > No better time to start a conversation about including the internationally > recognised rainbow flag in Unicode! > > Here’s some background reading on the flag itself: > > *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT_movement) > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT_movement)>* > > Here's Bustle on the inclusion of the rainbow flag: > > > Nearly 40 years after it was first flown, the rainbow flag remains a > powerful and potent symbol of not only current gay rights struggles, but > the history of gay rights in America. So why isn’t it available as an > emoji? The flag is in the public domain, so it certainly isn’t being held > up by copyright issues. And the current range of rainbow-related emoji show > that the technology to jam all those colors distinctly into a very tiny > space is available. Numerous national flags have been emojified. And given > that the flag has recently been added to the Museum of Modern Art’s design > collection, everyone is in agreement about its ongoing cultural > significance. So what gives? > > > http://www.bustle.com/articles/93227-wheres-the-rainbow-pride-flag-emoji-why-the-iconic-gay-rights-symbol-should-be-on-our > > This article also includes an example (via screenshot) of how many people > “make do” without the rainbow flag. Typically, they use U+1F308 RAINBOW. > This can be seen by searching on Twitter (or any other social media > platform) for that character. > > Indeed, GitHub uses RAINBOW for this: > > http://i.imgur.com/KaKQzIC.png > > Facebook did the same sort of thing, as seen here: > > http://mashable.com/2013/06/27/facebook-rainbow-pride-emoji-doma/ > > They also did this: > > > http://www.newnownext.com/facebook-adds-lgbt-emojis-for-pride-month/06/2014/ > > These emojis are *derivative* of the rainbow flag, or include characters > displaying the rainbow flag. > > While it can be argued that the RAINBOW emoji itself is usable as a > stand-in (as above), it usually requires some sort of additional context to > work. There is a clear need for a rainbow flag that unambiguously > symbolises queer pride. > > This is already going on, with some platforms choosing to use a custom > emoji shim where no Unicode code-point exists. > > This is Twitter’s rainbow flag: > > https://twitter.com/ericajoy/status/614822988609794048 > > Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/1kewdN1.png > > Slack has one too: > > https://twitter.com/SlackHQ/status/602779337784430592 > > Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/8cOK8MH.png > > Reddit also offers one: > > http://www.reddit.com/r/bisexual/comments/2lc2rc/can_you_see_the_emoji/ > > Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/p6YDRkF.png > > In all three examples, the symbol is being used in running text. > > I found this: > > > [...] the UTC does not wish to entertain further proposals for encoding > of symbol characters for flags, whether national, state, regional, > international, or otherwise. References to UTC Minutes: [134-C2], January > 28, 2013. > > http://www.unicode.org/alloc/nonapprovals.html > > I looked up the minutes, but could not find a more detailed explanation. > My guess is that these concerns related to geopolitical issues. Hopefully > the same rationale does not apply to the rainbow flag. > > Looking at: > > http://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Selection_Factors > > Here's a quick list of summary answers: > > a. Compatibility: yes. There are existing platform-specific rainbow flag > emojis, as demonstrated above. To build a Twitter or Slack client that > replicated the native functionality, you would have to use an image instead > of a Unicode code point. > > b. Expected usage level: the rainbow emoji is listed at #168 on > emojitracker.com, and as demonstrated, the rainbow flag has been in wide > use since the 1970s. > > c. Image distinctiveness: the rainbow flag is visually distinct. > > d. Disparity: the rainbow flag is a missing flag. > > e. Frequently requested: unsure. I could organise a petition if this would > help to sway the decision. > > f. Generality: the rainbow flag is not overly specific. Indeed it is the > most general of all the pride flags. > > g. Open-ended: the rainbow flag is open ended, being the most general of > all the pride flags. (Wikipedia lists 18 pride flags on the LGBT symbols > page, but there are many more in the wild.) > > h. Representable already: a rainbow can be represented, but it is > ambiguous. The RAINBOW emoji cannot be combined with anything pictorial > that makes the meaning clear. Context is required, such as paring it with > the word "pride". > > i. Logos, Brands, UI icons, signage, specific people, deities: the image > is suitable for for encoding as a character. > > What is the best thing for me to do next? > > My proposal is that we add RAINBOW FLAG to Unicode, and that we use the > “six-color version popular since 1979”. > > I only found one official proposal for a single emoji: > > http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2014/14298-whisky-emoji.pdf > > I couldn’t find any templates for proposals, though I did look through a > number of different examples. > > I noticed that a number of them include the ISO/IEC form at the end. Can > someone explain that to me? Does it make sense to submit a proposal to the > UTC without one of these? > > I also notice that it looks like I have to provide (or find a person to > provide) a font for the character. Is there any guidance on that? I am > happy to pay someone to prepare such a thing for me. > > Thank you in advance for your help. > > Noah Slater > >
