Gender symbols

A short overview of the most common transsexual/transgender and gender symbols …




Social movement/community flags and symbols

Rainbow flag

The Rainbow Flag of the LBGT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) movement.
Transgender pride flag Transgender sign

The Transgender Pride Flag, as designed by Monica Helms in 2000.

“The light blue is the traditional colour for baby boys, pink is for girls, and the white in the middle is for those who are transitioning, those who feel they have a neutral gender or no gender, and those who are intersexed. The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it will always be correct. This symbolizes us trying to find correctness in our own lives.”

The transgender sign, as designed by Holly Boswell.

The sign is the Unicode symbol ⚧ U+26A7 “Male with stroke and male and female sign” for transsexualism.



Characters and symbols on computers

Unicode, the universal standard for characters and symbols, knows traditional ten symbols related to gender and sexuality. More symbols (20 in the latest Unicode standard, 8.0) expressing gender can be found in the emoji section of Unicode. Computers can display them just any other text (for example, like alphanumeric characters), and they can be copied and pasted. Not all fonts can display them, though.

Geneaological and traditional gender, sex and partnership symbols

Gender and sex symbols

The traditional gender and sex symbols are derived from ancient and mediaeval astrological and alchemical symbols.

Symbol

Unicode Code Point

Unicode Name

Comment

Gender

♀

U+2640

Female sign

Female

Unicode: Venus. Alchemical symbol for copper.

♂

U+2642

Male sign

Male

Unicode: Mars. Alchemical symbol for iron.

⚥

U+26A5

Male and female sign

Intersexual, androgynous

Unicode: Hermaphrodite (in entomology). Transgendered sexuality.

⚲

U+26B2

Neuter

Neutral, genderless

Transsexualism

⚧

U+26A7

Male with stroke and male and female sign

Transsexualism

Unicode: Transgendered sexuality.

Sexual Orientation

⚤

U+26A4

Interlocked male and female sign

Heterosexuality

This sign is confusingly also sometimes used for bisexuality. Unicode: Bisexuality.

⚣

U+26A3

Doubled male sign

Male homosexuality

Unicode: Male homosexuality.

⚢

U+26A2

Doubled female sign

Lesbianism

Unicode: Lesbianism.

⚥⚥

2 × U+26A5

2 × Male and female sign

Bisexuality[1]

Doubled male and female sign. Doesn’t exist in Unicode.

⚪

U+26AA

Medium white circle

Asexuality

Unicode: Asexuality, sexless, genderless. Engaged, betrothed. Base for male and female sign.

No idea

☿

U+263F

Mercury

Sometimes used for non-binary transgender humans, virgin females, or flowers with both male and female reproductive organs

Unicode: Alchemical symbol for quicksilver.

⚦

U+26A6

Male with stroke sign

Was sometimes used for transgender

Unicode: Alchemical symbol for iron or crocus of iron. Transgendered sexuality.

⚨

U+26A8

Vertical male with stroke sign

Sometimes used for ‘other’ gender

Unicode: Alchemical symbol for iron.

⚩

U+26A9

Horizontal male with stroke sign

Sometimes used for ‘other’ gender

Unicode: Alchemical symbol for iron.

Genealogical relationship and partnership symbols

⚬ U+26AC Medium small white circle (engaged = wedding ring)
⚭ U+26AD Marriage symbol (married = connected wedding rings)
⚮ U+26AE Divorce symbol (divorced = split wedding rings)
⚯ U+26AF Unmarried partnership symbol (unconnected wedding rings)

Gendered emojis and other symbols relating to gender

Gendered symbols/emojis in Unicode

The Unicode guidelines[2] state that only very few emojis have an explicit gender. By default, all other emojis are gender-neutral. The complete list of gendered emojis is below.

Gendered people emojis

👦 U+1F466 Boy | 👧 U+1F467 Girl
👨 U+1F468 Man | 👩 U+1F469 Woman
👴 U+1F474 Older man | 👵 U+1F474 Older woman

Gendered emojis for partnerships

👫 U+1F46B Man and woman holding hands
👬 U+1F46C Two men holding hands | 👭 U+1F46D Two women holding hands

Gendered transport and map symbols (typically used for restrooms and changing rooms)

🛉 U+1F6C9 Boys symbol[3] | 🛊 U+1F6CA Girls symbol[3]
🚹 U+1F6B9 Mens symbol | 🚺 U+1F6BA Womens symbol

Gendered emojis depicting characters and roles

🎅 U+1F385 Father Christmas
👯 U+1F46F Woman with bunny ears
👰 U+1F470 Bride with veil
👲 U+1F472 Man with gua pi mao
👳 U+1F473 Man with turban
👸 U+1F478 Princess
🕴 U+1F574 Man in business suit levitating[4]


For Unicode version 9.0, scheduled for June 2016, some emoji additions are being discussed. Most are designed to gender-balance the above emojis depicting characters and roles:

🤶 1F936 Mother Christmas (to match 🎅 U+1F385 Father Christmas)
🕺 1F57A Man dancing (presumably to match the somewhat obscure character 👰 U+1F46F Woman with bunny ears, which is often depicted as one or two dancing women)
🤵 1F935 Man in tuxedo (presumably to match 👰 U+1F470 Bride with veil)
🤴 1F934 Prince (to match 👸 U+1F478 Princess)
🤰 1F930 Pregnant women (perhaps not surprisingly, without a male counterpart)

Selection of gender-neutral Unicode symbols

By default, all emojis except the ones listed in the “gendered” section above are gender-neutral and should be depicted as such. This vast majority of gender-neutral symbols includes all emoticons (smileys) and even some symbols with gender-specific names (such as 💂 U+1F482 Guardsman).
The small selection below provides some examples of gender-neutral symbols that have some connection to the gendered symbols above.

Gender-neutral people emoji

👤 U+1F464 Bust in silhouette
👥 U+1F465 Busts in silhouette
👶 U+1F476 Baby
👱 U+1F471 Person with blond hair

Gender-neutral relationship symbol

👪 U+1F46A Family

Gender-neutral partnership symbol

💑 U+1F491 Couple with heart

Gender-neutral transport and map symbols (typically used for restrooms and baby change rooms)

🚻 U+1F6BB Restroom
🚼 U+1F6BC Baby symbol

Small selection of gender-neutral emojis depicting characters and roles

👮 U+1F46E Police officer
👷 U+1F477 Construction worker
💂 U+1F482 Guardsman[5]

Character display issues

♀♂⚥⚲⚧⚤⚣⚢⚪☿⚦⚨⚩⚬⚭⚮⚯👦👧👨👩👴👵👫👬👭🛉🛊🚹🚺🎅👯👰👲👳👸🕴👤👥👶👱👪💑🚻🚼👮👷💂 – If your browser displays little rectangles or other placeholders instead of the expected Unicode symbol, then your display font doesn’t have the required characters. The newer the fonts on your system, the more likely are they to have the latest Unicode characters.

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[1] Sadly, the Unicode repertoire doesn’t include a sign for bisexuality, hence the clumsy workaround using two characters. Maybe the bisexuality sign will be added at a future revision?

[2] See Unicode Emoji (Unicode Technical Report #51, dated 2015-06-09), Chapter 2.1. Gender.

[3] 🛉 U+1F6C9 Boys symbol and 🛊 U+1F6CA Girls symbol are not listed in the section of gendered emojis in the Unicode guidelines[2]. Normally, this would imply the symbols are gender-neutral. However, since 🚹 U+1F6B9 Mens symbol and 🚺 U+1F6BA Womens symbol are listed as gendered symbols, I assume this is an erroneous omission.

[4] Naturally.

[5] Guardsperson would have been a much less confusing term.