September is going to be a good month for emoji enthusiasts and queer folks alike! We’re getting a big pile of new emojis, including a ginger root, a moose, and a jellyfish, plus several new heart colors. A couple of these hearts correspond to pride flags, and one that’s got Ace people excited is the gray heart.
As people on the asexual spectrum know, the color gray factors into asexuality in a couple of different ways. First off, it’s one of the colors of the asexual flag (the other colors being black, white, and purple), which means that Aces can now accurately depict the colors of the Ace flag with heart emojis. Yay!
Another reason the new heart is exciting is because of the graysexual identity, sometimes shorted to “gray ace” or “grace.” Asexuality isn’t a single identity—it’s an umbrella term for a wide variety of different identities. The term “asexual” might refer to someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction, or very limited sexual attraction. It might mean that someone enjoys romance and/or intimacy, but not sex. Someone who’s demisexual (myself included) may usually only feel sexual attraction to someone they already have a close emotional bond with. Finally, graysexuality describes people who may sometimes feel sexual attraction, but experience it infrequently enough that they either identify as asexual, or find themselves somewhere in between sexuality and asexuality. Graysexual people may relate to the term asexual, but find that it doesn’t completely describe their experience.
None of these identities are necessarily distinct, by the way. All of them can be fluid and overlapping! For example, a demisexual might identify as a grace, and someone’s place in the spectrum might shift and change over time. And now we’ve got an emoji to express it!
Aces, graces, demis, and other people in the asexual umbrella are very excited about the new heart emoji.
Along with the grey heart, people are excited about the possibilities of the pink and blue hearts, too. Redditors are pointing out that, now that there are pink and blue hearts, they can finally make a trans flag with heart emojis. (If you’re scratching your head over the pink heart because you could swear that there’s always been one, it’s because all the current pink emoji hearts have extra bits and bobs like ribbons, stars, and arrows. This is the first time the standard heart emoji has had a pink recolor.)
Look for the emoji update on your device in September, and then let’s see some Ace flags!
(featured image: Robert Perry/Getty Images)
