Facebook Adds a New Icon to Represent Gay Married Couples
Facebook now accommodates gay married couples as the social media network has added a cake topper icon with two male or female partners to it.
The new controversial icon will appear in the "Marriage" Timeline event pop-up and can be changed between two women or two men.
Users still cannot choose a non-standard icon without linking their spouse's Facebook account, which means that if one person in a couple does not have an account, the other user will be stuck with the old design.
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This comes just a year after the social network began allowing gay and lesbian couples to list themselves as being in either a "civil union," or in a "domestic partnership."
Facebook has also been a longtime supporter of the LGBT community and recently became the first social media company to be given a GLAAD Media award.
The company is one of many now sounding off for gay advocacy. Nabisco also made headlines recently after it released an ad featuring a rainbow Oreo cookie created to celebrate homosexuality.
Facebook's timing with this new icon was not surprising since one of its co-founders, Chris Hughes, married his longtime partner Sean Eldridge this past weekend, making him one of the first people able to take advantage of it.
The wedding was attended by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his former associate Sean Parker, along with U.S. Congress House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Hughes helped to create and launch Facebook with his former Harvard roommates Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin.
He currently works as the publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, a magazine he purchased earlier this year. He also played a huge role in the social media strategy used to help President Barack Obama win the 2008 election.
