Facebook

Facebook has become a huge influence in our lives over the past few years. Now, we even define the stability of a romantic relationship by declaring to be in that relationship on facebook profiles. We take that to mean that if someone is willing to announce that private information to all their friends and family on facebook, then it must be official. Until recently, same sex couples did not have a way to express their relationship status on facebook. Facebook added "In a Civil Union," and "In a Domestic Partnership" relationship statuses that can be displayed on user profiles. This is a big step for the LGBT community. It is a way for them to be included in a way that heterosexuals are in this social network. Recently, Facebook created marriage emoticons depicting same sex couples which you can see above. There are same sex brides and same sex grooms. The feedback recieved for this development has not been all positive. There are now complaints that they are discriminating against transgender individuals since they are having to choose a gender for their profile while they are conflicted about choosing one and resisting conforming to the pressures of society. Facebook actually was just awarded the Special Recognition Award from GLAAD for their contributions to inclusions of this community on their site.  I really feel like this is a big step. It is not just supportive of these individuals but it is also helping to give them a more accurate identity online. We are supposed to portray who we are on this site, and I can only imagine what it would feel like to not even have available options of how you could genuinely portray yourself. Honestly, before reading articles about this I never really thought about how facebook affected the LGBT community. But it really hit me. I think these new developments willgive the community a sense of validation.. It is beautiful to see change of this stature taking place.