It took Facebook awhile, but this week the behemoth of social networking sites tiptoed into the legal minefield of restrictions, bans and government-imposed definitions that gay and lesbian couples have been assigned to describe our relationships and added “Civil Unions” and “Domestic Partnerships” to the mix of Single, Married, Divorced and It’s Complicated.
Facebook, with a population of 500 million (making it the world’s third largest country, so to speak) says that these additions are in response to demands from slightly smaller countries like the U.S., France, the U.K. and Canada. Apparently it will not be a choice offered in so-called “less tolerant” places like Saudi Arabia. No reports yet on if some of our favorite U.S. states that talk about seceding and printing their own money will be leaving the Facebook Nation over another small step for the “gay agenda”, but for the most part the announcement that one can now clearly proclaim a more accurate relationship status has been treated as a non-event on both sides of the fence. (Read more at OpenSalon.com)
Kathy Drasky regularly writes about online culture. Her marketing and communications work with the ANZA Technology Network, Advance Global Australians and with various Australians and Australian enterprises has led to at least a dozen trips Down Under.
An accomplished digital photographer, her photos have appeared in 7×7 Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and Google Schmap.
