diff --git a/Lib/logging/handlers.py b/Lib/logging/handlers.py
index 2d71470..2437c34 100644
--- a/Lib/logging/handlers.py
+++ b/Lib/logging/handlers.py
@@ -779,6 +779,10 @@
             self.encodePriority(self.facility,
                                 self.mapPriority(record.levelname)),
                                 msg)
+        #Message is a string. Convert to bytes as required by RFC 5424
+        msg = msg.encode('utf-8')
+        if codecs:
+            msg = codecs.BOM_UTF8 + msg
         try:
             if self.unixsocket:
                 try:
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 8984e6f..96ee2ac 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #7077: logging: SysLogHandler now treats Unicode as per RFC 5424.
+
 - Issue #7099: Decimal.is_normal now returns True for numbers with exponent
   larger than emax.