【Esther Studer】

LGBTQ Pride Month is Esther Studerunderway, and Facebook just made it easier to celebrate in small yet eye-catching ways.

The social network launched a series of new features and tools on Monday to help you show queer pride and allyship throughout the month of June. From a rainbow flag emoji you can use to react to posts, to a slew of filters for Messenger and Facebook Camera, the new features encourage users to honor and support the LGBTQ community with colorful flair.

SEE ALSO: Instagram releases fierce rainbow stickers to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month

"As Pride celebrations begin around the world, Facebook is proud to support our diverse community, including those that have identified themselves on Facebook as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or gender-nonconforming," said Alex Schultz, VP and executive sponsor of pride@facebook, in an announcement post.

According to Schultz, as of this year, more than 12 million people around the world have joined at least one of the 76,000 existing Facebook groups focusing on the LGBTQ community. More than 1.5 million people have so far said they're going to attend one of 7,500 Pride events on Facebook.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Facebook is rolling out the new additions over the next few weeks. Alongside the range of ways you can already react to a post — like, love, wow, etc. — you'll also see an option for a limited-edition LGBTQ flag to "express your pride."

"As Pride celebrations begin around the world, Facebook is proud to support our diverse community."

And to coincide with various cities' local Pride Marches, Facebook will introduce an animation at the top of News Feeds showing the word "Pride" in rainbow script, which users can share to their Timelines. You can also click through the animation to create a temporary profile photo frame.

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Facebook Camera, the platform's augmented reality camera feature, also has new Pride-themed masks, frames, and effects, while Messenger has new stickers you can include in your messages.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, Facebook is encouraging people to use its fundraiser tool to have a tangible impact this Pride Month. You can choose your favorite nonprofit doing crucial work for the LGBTQ community, and raise money from your friends and family to support its efforts.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The announcement of the new features comes just a few days after Twitter launched a new "Pridemoji" that incorporates both the LGBTQ pride flag and the trans pride flag. Instagram also launched new stickers to celebrate the community last week, created by LGBTQ artists with nods to the diversity of identities within the community.

Those efforts are especially notable because of their deliberate inclusiveness to extend beyond sexuality. Facebook's new features, however, seem to stick to the rainbow flag motif and not much else.

SEE ALSO: 8 meaningful ways you can make an impact this LGBTQ Pride Month

But to its credit, Facebook is making an IRL impact, participating in Pride activities in more than 20 cities around the world this month, as well as hosting events and discussions for employees.

"From our support of marriage equality and bullying prevention, to the many product experiences that we've brought to life, we are proud of our attention to the LGBTQ experience on Facebook, often thanks to the many LGBTQ people and allies who work here," Schultz said. He added that while there's still work to be done, Facebook is an eager partner in the fight toward equality.

Changing your profile photo and adding colorful stickers might not lead to real change for the community. But introducing more ways for LGBTQ users and their allies to show pride and support this month is a way to increase visibility — and have fun while doing it.

Related Video: 'Be proud': LGBTQ elders' advice to kids in the community

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