By Trudy Ring

Originally published on Advocate.com June 15 2012 8:05 PM ET

The next version of Apple’s software for the iPad and iPhone will let you send little icons of same-sex couples with your text messages and emails.

The iOS 6 operating system, due out later this year, will have “emojis” — small icons, similar to emoticons — of two men holding hands and two women holding hands, tech website Gizmodo reports. Only male-female couples had been portrayed previously.

Apple, long known as an LGBT-friendly company, offered a preview of the software at a conference in San Francisco this week.