Ever since the mainstreaming of the Internet in the 1990s, people the world over have been using little graphical icons to express themselves in a better, easier, and more visual manner than text alone allows for. They bridge the impersonal gap between screens to offer a representation of what the other person is thinking and who they are in ways that might be too involved or awkward to spell out. Oftentimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words. It began with crude text “emoticons” in which users simply typed things like 🙂 to approximate a smile, then moved on to graphic emoticons, where platforms like AOL Instant Messenger and email providers would automatically turn those into little yellow smiley faces. Back in the day, these were app-by-app functions individually programmed into whatever software or device you were using. In the early 2010s, everything changed.
The emoticons of yesteryear gave way to a new-and-improved iteration called “emojis”, and unlike their more amusingly named forerunners, emojis quickly became standardized across virtually every device, platform, website, and app, all using the same system known as Unicode. Over the years, the number of emojis expanded from things like smiley faces and thumbs-up to include icons for every conceivable thing. People use them not only to relay exactly what they’re thinking in text conversations, but also as sort of badges within their social media bios or alongside their usernames, like buttons on a jean jacket or digital tattoos to express their individuality, show their interests, or signal the groups they belong to.
Today, there are nearly 4,000 emojis, including an abacus 🧮, a mouse trap 🪤, nesting dolls 🪆, and a levitating man in a suit 🕴️. Flags have also become an easy way people can signify the countries or communities they come from or belong too — a list that includes a pirate flag 🏴☠️, a checkered flag 🏁, the United Nations flag 🇺🇳, the rainbow flag 🏳️🌈, the trans flag 🏳️⚧️, the flag of Sark 🇨🇶 (a tiny Island in the English channel with a population of 500), and the flag of Bouvet Island 🇧🇻 (which no one lives on).
But no bisexual flag. In fact, there are no uniquely bisexual emojis at all. Every country, demographic, and interest seems to be represented except for bi people, despite the fact that they account for about 60% of the LGBT community.
And it’s not for lack of trying.
In 2020, a software engineer and bi activist named Tanner Marino submitted a proposal for a bisexual flag emoji to the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization that oversees emoji standards. As with all submissions, the bi flag proposal was sent to a panel of emoji overlords for review. Ultimately, the bi flag proposal was rejected, with Marino receiving a standard response that did not offer a specific explanation for the decision. As Marino noted in a Change.org petition he created:
Recently, the following new emoji were released: a plunger, an olive, a dodo bird, and a beaver. Notably, the transgender flag was included. Seeing that the powers that be (Unicode; Google, Facebook and Apple are members) finally were open to inclusive representation, a bisexual flag emoji was proposed — and rejected, for no reason.
As of 2026, his petition has over 20,000 verified signatures.
Unicode allows submissions for new emojis every year from the beginning of April through the end of July. While bi activists continue to push for the same basic representation every other group already has, there are some practical workarounds you can use with existing emojis to build your own approximation of the bi colors.
While it’s unfortunate that bi people don’t have an emoji, despite being the largest group within the LGBT community, it’s also not all that surprising. Bi erasure is nothing new. But emoji changes can take time, and plenty of now-familiar symbols only made it onto our keyboards after years of advocacy, visibility, and persistence. The bi community has made enormous strides in recent years, and until the bi flag finally gets its place, we can keep showing up, making ourselves visible, and finding creative ways to claim our colors!