HitFix

It took ‘Loving’ to get us interracial and same-sex couple emojis

by: Uproxx authors

Based on true events, Loving stars Ruth Negga (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Preacher) and Joel Edgerton (The Gift) as a real life interracial couple trying to live their lives in the 1960s. Now Focus Features has teamed up with Twitter for interracial and same-sex couple emojis which I can't believe wasn't already a thing in 2016.

If you haven't already heard about this movie, here's a summary:

From acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols, LOVING celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (portrayed by Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry – and their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.

Loving also stars Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas, Nick Kroll, Terri Abney, Alano Miller, and Jon Bass and is set to hit theaters on November 4th. (Nichols previously wrote and directed the fantastic Midnight Special starring Shannon and Edgerton, I highly recommend it.)

The new emojis are marketing of course but also important for giving representation to everyone (something we talk about quite a bit around these parts).

Richard and Mildred Loving showed us that love is stronger than hate and has the power to spark real change. Inspired by their story, we are debuting emojis that represent many forms of love, including same-sex and interracial. In addition, during election season, we're encouraging everyone to show that simply conveying love can change the world one state at a time. LOVING, a Focus Features release, opens in select cities November 4 and expands across the country later in November.

Here's what some of them look like:

You can utilize them on Twitter by using the hashtags #VoteLoving, #ThisisLoving, or #LovingMovie plus they've launched the LOVE-MOJI App which is a keyboard extension so you can use them anywhere. You can see them in use on the Loving Twitter account right now.

Focus Features also went one step further and set up VoteLoving.com where you can find stories from each U.S. state “about ordinary Americans conveying love [and] helping to better the state of the world.”