Facebook has introduced new icons for gay and lesbian couples who get married, quietly pushing out the change over the weekend. Previously, any users who set their status to “married” would get a happy husband and wife on their feed, regardless of the gender of the couple. But now, these users will be recognized by the new same-sex marriage icons.
The icons follow Facebook’s addition of “in a civil partnership” to relationship options last year, and come in time for Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes to use one at the top of his own page following his wedding to husband Sean Eldridge on Saturday.
The move inevitably inspired protests from homophobic pressure groups, but also from groups who argued that the move is two steps forward but one step back – acknowledging and celebrating the role of gay and lesbian couples, while also reinforcing the traditional gender roles which can make life difficult for those very same people.
One comment below the GLAAD announcement of the change reads “My butch partner would not like being represented as someone in a dress. To put it mildly,” while another pointed out that, while you can choose to hide gender from timelines, you are still forced to choose male or female when creating an account, saying “Fantastic! Now, can they add more options for gender for those of us that don’t really fit?!”.
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