Facebook adds civil union options to profiles
Thu. February 17, 2011 6:30 PM by GoPride.com News Staff
Gay rights advocates laud Facebook's new status options
Facebook changed its relationship-status options on Thursday and now the social network giant recognizes civil unions and domestic partnerships.
"This has been a highly requested feature from users," Facebook's Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy communications, told The Huffington Post, which first reported the change in status options. "We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook."
The new choices, which include "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership", are now available for the nearly 600 million users in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
The change aligns Facebook with the 35 plus countries recognizing non-traditional relationships; however, Facebook users in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where homosexuality is a crime, will not be seeing the new options.
"Today, Facebook sent a clear message in support of gay and lesbian couples to users across the globe," said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. "By acknowledging the relationships of countless loving and committed same-sex couples in the U.S. and abroad, Facebook has set a new standard of inclusion for social media. As public support for marriage equality continues to grow, we will continue to work for the day when all couples have the opportunity to marry and have their relationship recognized by their community, both online and off."
GLAAD was among the organizations that met with Facebook to advocate for this change.
"This has been a highly requested feature from users," Facebook's Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy communications, told The Huffington Post, which first reported the change in status options. "We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook."
The new choices, which include "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership", are now available for the nearly 600 million users in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
The change aligns Facebook with the 35 plus countries recognizing non-traditional relationships; however, Facebook users in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where homosexuality is a crime, will not be seeing the new options.
"Today, Facebook sent a clear message in support of gay and lesbian couples to users across the globe," said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. "By acknowledging the relationships of countless loving and committed same-sex couples in the U.S. and abroad, Facebook has set a new standard of inclusion for social media. As public support for marriage equality continues to grow, we will continue to work for the day when all couples have the opportunity to marry and have their relationship recognized by their community, both online and off."
GLAAD was among the organizations that met with Facebook to advocate for this change.