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Tag: LGBT

  • Gay Marriage Photo Yanked (then Restored) in Another Instance of Facebook’s Flawed Content Removal System at Work

    Facebook is (once again) in the middle of a content removal drama – except this time is doesn’t have anything to do with breastfeeding, racy cartoons, art, exposed nipples, or racially charged posts. This time, the drama centers around a marriage equality activist and his popular page.

    As the story goes, Murray Lip, activist and founder of advocacy group Gay Marriage USA, was recently banned from posting content on his Facebook page after Facebook deemed a photo that he had posted was in “violation of their policies and community standards.”

    Lipp, whose ‘Gay Marriage USA’ page has around 300,000 likes, says that this is not the first time that Facebook has reprimanded him for content posted to his page. He claims that the content is not offensive or in violation of Facebook standards, but it is being flagged by the site due to numerous complaints from homophobic Facebook users.

    The photo that Facebook removed and for which Lipp was scolded feature an interracial gay couple being married. Here it is:

    After protests, Facebook reinstated the photo and issued this statement:

    The content of the photograph in question did not violate our terms, however it was removed in error. Our dedicated User Operations team reviews millions of pieces of this content a day to help keep Facebook safe for all. Our policies are enforced by a team of reviewers in several offices across the globe. This team looks at hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and as you might expect, occasionally, we make a mistake and block a piece of content we shouldn’t have.

    When Facebook mistakenly removed a New Yorker cartoon last September, here’s the statement they made:

    Recently, we mistakenly blocked a cartoon as part of our efforts to keep the site safe for all and quickly worked to rectify the mistake as soon as we were notified. Facebook is a place where almost a billion people share click more than a trillion links a day. Our dedicated User Operations Team reviews millions of pieces of this content a day to help keep Facebook safe for all. Our policies are enforced by a team of reviewers in several offices across the globe. This team looks at hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and as you might expect, occasionally, we make a mistake and block a piece of content we shouldn’t have. We have already taken steps to prevent this from happening in the future and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

    Nearly identical responses, as you can see. What’s the common thread here? It’s that Facebook screwed up and they’re sorry.

    And we shouldn’t be too surprised when Facebook gets it wrong and removes content that they shouldn’t. That “dedicated user operations team” that they mention mostly consists of outsourced content moderators who are given some often confusing guidelines on what is acceptable and what isn’t. Facebook has millions and millions of pieces of content uploaded every day, and it’s impossible to police it all without the help of users themselves.

    That’s why Facebook relies heavily on user reports of content that violates policies. That’s probably what triggered this photo (and all of Lipp’s other photos in the past) to be removed – lots of complaining.

    Facebook is not perfect in their content moderation (not even close). They have a severe breast phobia, and have made some ridiculous content removals based on that.

    Many of those removals are eventually restored, however. And Facebook always says “sorry, our bad.” With over 1 billion active users and tens of thousands of pieces of content rolling in every day, you can see why they screw it up every now and then.

    Then again, Facebook’s content guidelines clearly say nothing about photos of gay couples. They do say something about harassment and hate speech, however. In a perfect world, that’s the content that would be getting purged from Gay Marriage USA’s Facebook page. While the innocuous image shown above is nowhere near offensive, hate speech is offensive.

    Gay Marriage USA had started a petition on Change.org called Facebook: Stop Pandering to Homophobes. Part of the petitions’s goal has already been fulfilled – the photo has been restored. But the general “stop pandering” request is still unfulfilled, and legitimate. I would agree that Facebook is probably pandering to homophobes when they remove certain content. But I would also say that it’s not just homophobes. Facebook’s content removal system is flawed. It makes mistakes.

    But if non-violating content from a page like Gay Marriage USA is being removed this often, based on complaints from users, Facebook needs to make sure its content moderators are a little more hesitant to act in the future.

  • National Cathedral to Host Same-sex Weddings

    Very Rev. Gary Hall, the dean of Washington National Cathedral, announced today that same-sex weddings can now be performed at the cathedral. The cathedral has been designated by congress as the “National House of Prayer” and has been the venue for many U.S. memorial services and funerals, including those for Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

    “Washington National Cathedral has a long history of advancing equality for people of all faiths and perspectives,” said Hall. “The Cathedral is called to serve as a gathering place for the nation in times of significance, but it is also rooted in its role as the most visible faith community within the Episcopal Church. For more than 30 years, the Episcopal Church has prayed and studied to discern the evidence of God’s blessing in the lives of same-sex couples. It is now only fitting that the National Cathedral follow suit. We enthusiastically affirm each person as a beloved child of God – and doing so means including the full participation of gays and lesbians in the life of this spiritual home for the nation.”

    Same-sex marriage ceremonies performed at the cathedral will use a rite adapted from an existing blessing ceremony the Episcopal Church approved last year, which allows individual bishops in each diocese to decide whether or not to allow the rite to be used for same-sex marriage. The bishop overseeing Washington D.C. chose to allow same-sex marriage using the rite just last month.

    “In my 35 years of ordained ministry, some of the most personally inspiring work I have witnessed has been among gay and lesbian communities where I have served,” said Hall. “I consider it a great honor to lead this Cathedral as it takes another historic step toward greater equality – and I am pleased that this step follows the results made clear in this past November’s election, when three states voted to allow same-sex marriage.

    “Matters of human sexual identity and questions about the Church’s role in blessing lifelong, committed relationships between its members are serious issues around which feelings run high and people of good will can often disagree. It is my hope and prayer that, if all of us open ourselves to the fullness and diversity of our nation’s many voices, we will learn to walk together in a new way as we listen for God’s call to us to be faithful to each other and to God.”

    Images of same-sex weddings at the National Cathedral will certainly help illustrate that a tipping-point has already been reached in the U.S., and that same-sex marriage rights (in addition to others) will soon be recognized across the country. There is a catch, however: not everyone can be married at Washington National Cathedral.

    At least one member of a couple must be Christian and baptized to be married at the cathedral. Also, “as a general rule,” only active members of the cathedral’s congregation, alumni of it’s schools, big donors to the cathedral, or those judged by Hall “to have played an exceptional role in the life of the nation” are eligible to be married at the cathedral.

    So, while the first same-sex marriages performed at the National Cathedral are likely to be small affairs for church members, it’s possible that some well-known LGBT people who have “played an exceptional” role in the U.S. could be married there in the near future.

  • George Takei and Team Coco Help You Come Out to Your Family This Christmas

    The holidays are hard enough, but if you’re a gay man or woman who has chosen that special time fo the year to come out to your family – well, it may make the holidays a bit harder (depending on your family). If you think that your big announcement may not go over so well, Team Coco and George Takei are here to help.

    For just $99.95, plus $19.95, plus $9.95, plus $1.95, you can have the whole package – Andy Richter, the band, and Takei come to your house and persuade/threaten your family into accepting you for who you are.

    “Welcome to the wonderful world of gay!”

  • Spirit Day: Go Purple on Social Media to Take a Stand Against Bullying

    If you see a bunch of purple profile pics, Timeline photos, and Twitter avatars today – don’t worry, everyone hasn’t uploaded a new photo from their iPhone 5 cameras. All that purple is for #SpiritDay, an anti-bullying awareness campaign first launched back in 2010.

    For the third time, October 19th serves as Spirit Day – a day where people add a splash of purple to their lives (both online and offline) in support of LGBT rights. The national awareness day was started by a high schooler named Brittany McMillan.

    “Ultimately, I want Spirit Day to make just one person feel a little bit better about his or herself, to feel safe enough in their own skin to be proud of who they are,” she says.

    I’ll let GLAAD sum it up:

    “Millions of Americans wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy — participants are asked to simply ‘go purple’ on October 19th as we work to create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are.”

    So today, supporters will take to social media to show their support in a number of ways. Avatar-altering Twitter cause supporters Twibbon have a hub where people can tint their profile pics purple, as well as tweet and Facebook standard support messages. There’s also an official #SpiritDay Timeline cover photo available for use.

    You’ll probably see social media properties getting in on the purple as well. Facebook will tint a few of their official pages purple, including their Diversity and Safety pages. Facebook has been a big supporter of Spirit Day from the start, even winning a GLAAD media award for their attention to LGBT causes. Yesterday, Facebook ramped up their anti-bullying initiative with a new safety page, videos, and a rededication to a national ad campaign involving its “Stop Bullying: Speak Up” project.

    Facebook’s not the only one. Tumblr will also participate in Spirit Day, as will StumbleUpon, Hulu, and Instagram. More info on all the participants is available on the GLAAD website.

    Of course, it’s not just about going purple in support. If you want to make a financial contribution, you can text PURPLE to 80888. That will donate $5 to GLAAD, GLSEN, and The Trevor Project.

  • Gay Students’ Outing Highlights Privacy Flaws in Facebook Groups

    If you’re under the impression that you can maintain social media accounts and still have true privacy, you’re probably going to have a bad time. Although there are ways to make sure only certain people can see your Facebook posts, tweets, and photos – social media has a knack for exposing private information in ways that you wouldn’t even imagine possible.

    Of course, that is until is happens to you.

    The Wall Street Journal recently ran a piece on two University of Texas students whose lives hit a speed bump when their sexuality was outed on Facebook. Nobody accessed their account surreptitiously, and the students didn’t make a late night mistake and post a telling photo or check-in. It was actually a mechanism within the Facebook platform that did it. According to Bobbi Duncan and Taylor McCormick, all it took to be outed to their families was the simple act of being added to a group.

    The story goes like this: The president of a gay choir group at the University decided to make a Facebook group for the choir, titled “Queer Chorus.” As you would imagine, the president began adding members to the group shortly after creating it.

    And when he added Duncan and McCormick, a story about it was published on the news feeds of their parents. Even though both students had customized their privacy settings to disallow their families from seeing certain posts, the story generated by the addition to the group found its way to unwanted news feeds.

    But how did this happen? How can Facebook generate a news feed story and display it to someone who’s been excluded via privacy settings?

    It’s because Facebook groups have an oftentimes annoying way of circumventing privacy settings. Let’s take a closer look at how.

    First off, anyone creating a group has the option to launch it in three formats from the beginning: Open, Closed, and Secret. Here’s what Facebook has to say about Open and Closed groups in terms of privacy (emphasis mine):

    Open: Anyone on Facebook can see and join the group. Open groups will appear in search results and all content that members post (ex: photos, videos and files) is visible to anyone viewing the group. Friends can see that you’ve joined an open group in their news feed.

    Closed: Anyone on Facebook can see the group name, its members and people invited to join the group, but only members can see posts in the group. To join a closed group, a friend needs to add you, or you can ask to join. Your friends can see that you’ve been invited or added to a closed group in their news feed.

    In order for a user to not show up on their friends’ news feeds after being added to a group, that group has to be labeled secret:

    Secret: These groups cannot be found in searches, and non-members can’t see anything about the group, including its name and member list. The name of the group will not display on the timelines of members. To join a secret group, you need to be added by a member of the group.

    But in the case of our two students from UT, the group creator close Open. Because of that, the news that they had been added to “Queer Choir” reached the news feeds and ultimately the eyes of people that they wished to keep that kind of information from.

    The other tricky part about Facebook groups is that users cannot summarily exclude themselves from being added to groups.

    “Similar to being tagged in a photo, you can only be added to a group by one of your friends. When a friend adds you to a group, a story in the group (and in news feed for Open or Closed groups) will indicate that your friend has added you to a group,” says Facebook.

    “When a friend adds you to a group, you’ll get a notification right away, [and] you can leave a group anytime. To do so, just go to the group page and click “Leave Group” in the right-hand column. Once you leave a group, you can’t be added by anyone else unless you explicitly request to be re-added.”

    So if you catch it quick, you can leave. But that story might still be generated and shown to unwanted eyes.

    There’s also a bit of misinformation when it comes to these notifications. Just for fun, I created a new, open group that the average user probably wouldn’t want to be a part of – I called it “Incestuous meth addicts, unite!” I added a couple of people to the group, and here’s the notification they received:

    Notice anything? It simply states that they’ve “been invited” to join the group. But when you go to the group page, you find that they are already members:

    “Our hearts go out to these young people. Their unfortunate experience reminds us that we must continue our work to empower and educate users about our robust privacy controls,” Facebook told the WSJ.

    But until users have some more control of who can add them to groups, bizarre complications like the ones experienced by our two gay students will continue to occur. If you have a secret to hide, Facebook is a dangerous place – that’s common sense. But hoping to catch a notification in order to remove yourself from any group that any friend decided to throw you into on a whim – Facebook can do better than that.

  • Facebook at the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade [VIDEO]

    Facebook, widely known as one of the top corporate backers of LGBT rights, has posted a video detailing their experience at this year’s San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

    The parade actually took place back in June (during gay pride month), but Facebook is giving us a look at their participation in honor of National Coming Out Day, which was officially celebrated on Thursday.

    “Facebook is proud of its LGBT employees as well as their friends and family who support them. Take a look at Facebook’s video from the 2012 San Francisco Pride Parade where more than 400 people turned out to march with us!” says Facebook on their Diversity page.

    Facebook has thrown their support behind another LGBT pride day, Spirit Day, which is coming up on October 19th. Spirit Day was founded in 2010 by a high schooler named Brittany McMillian. Supporters are asked to wear purple and change their Facebook profile pics to purple to show their solidarity with the LGBT community.

    Like I said before, Facebook is a big supporter of LGBT right. Earlier this year, they became the first social media company to win the GLAAD Media Award for “outstanding images of the LGBT community in the media.” According to GLAAD, Facebook won the honor based on their continued support for LGBt rights, including the addition of LGBT resources in the Help Center and their participation in a nationwide anti-bullying campaign.

  • Twitter Users Tweet the Word “Faggot” Over 200,000 Times a Week

    In an effort to “put an end to casual homophobia,” the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Service at the University of Alberta has fashioned the NoHomophobes tracker, which logs every use of the word “faggot” and other gay slurs across Twitter.

    And the results are pretty staggering.

    It’s definitely no surprise that phrases like “faggot” and “so gay” are often used on the social networking site. But the sheer volume of use is pretty impressive. NoHomophobes.com began tracking the words on July 5th, and in just 11 weeks the word “faggot” was used over 2.5 million times. That means that every week, around 228,000 tweets go out containing the controversial word.

    The site also tracks uses of the phrase “so gay,” “no homo,” and “dyke.” In 11 weeks, they’ve seen 896,756 uses of “so gay,” 818,652 uses of “no homo,” and 346,977 uses of “dyke.”

    If you visit the site, you can also see a constant feed of all tweets containing these phrases.

    Of course, words like “faggot” are not always used in a purely derogatory manner. They have been inserted into our lexicon in ways that vary from the original meaning. That’s precisely the point, according to the initiative. They want to make people aware of just how casually people throw around the words that are oftentimes hurtful to large portions of the population:

    “This website is designed as a social mirror to show the prevalence of casual homophobia in our society. Words and phrases like “faggot,” “dyke,” “no homo,” and “so gay” are used casually in everyday language, despite promoting the continued alienation, isolation and — in some tragic cases — suicide of sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ) youth.

    We no longer tolerate racist language, we’re getting better at dealing with sexist language, but sadly we’re still not actively addressing homophobic and transphobic language in our society,” they explain.

    If you extrapolate their data, you find that the word “faggot” will be tweeted almost 12 million times this year. If you want to show your support for their cause, they ask you to tweet using the #nohomophobes hashtag.

    [via ThinkProgress]

  • Facebook Continues LGBT Support With Spirit Day Promotion

    Facebook continues to be one of the most LGBT-friendly companies around, as they have once again thrown their support behind Spirit Day.

    The event, which falls on October 19th, was founded in 2010 by a high schooler named Brittany McMillan. On Spirit Day, supporters are asked to wear purple to speak out against bullying and to show their general allegiance with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. The idea was adopted and has been strongly advocated by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

    “Ultimately, I want Spirit Day to make just one person feel a little bit better about his or herself, to feel safe enough in their own skin to be proud of who they are,” says McMillan.

    “Millions of Americans wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy — participants are asked to simply “go purple” on October 19th as we work to create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are,” says GLAAD.

    Another way that people have celebrated Spirit Day in the past has been to change their Facebook profile pictures to purple. Facebook has announced their support of the event:

    Facebook Diversity18 hours ago

    Facebook is pleased to once again support Spirit Day (Friday, Oct. 19), an annual day when millions of people wear purple to speak out against bullying and show their support for LGBT youth. We encourage you to join the Facebook Event here: http://bit.ly/fbspiritday and learn more about Spirit Day here: http://www.glaad.org/spiritday

    http://bit.ly/fbspiritday

    Powered by socialditto  62 likes ·  1 comments

    Earlier this year, Facebook was presented with a GLAAD media award to honor “the most outstanding images of the LGBT community in the media. Facebook was the first social media company to ever receive the award. Spirit Day founder Brittany McMillan presented the award at the ceremony.

    You can join the international event on Facebook here.

  • Google Autocomplete No Longer Excludes “Bisexual”

    There are thousands of words that Google has “blacklisted,” meaning they won’t trigger any suggestions within Google’s autocomplete feature. If you don’t quite understand what I’m talking about, head on over to Google and type in “football.” Before your fingers even hit the letter “t,” there’s a good chance that “football” or “football score” or something similar is dropped down as a suggestion.

    Now search for “porn.” Nothing, right?

    In some instances, Google does this to protect copyright. For instance, searchers of the word “torrent” will find a dearth of autocomplete suggestions. Just recently, Google added The Pirate Bay to its list of blacklisted search terms for autocomplete. In some cases, words like “amateur,” “porn,” “boobs,” and other related terms are blacklisted to…really I don’t know. To protect Google users from *gasp* pornography, I guess.

    One of the words that failed to produce any autocomplete suggestions was “bisexual.” Notice the past tense here. That’s because a bisexual advocacy group is claiming to have won the battle and gotten “bisexual” off the blacklist.

    “Since late 2009, Google has had “bisexual” on a list of banned words; such words were de-prioritized by the Google search algorithm, leading to a drop in search rankings for all bisexual organizations and community resources. Since its search engine would not auto-suggest or auto-complete any term with the word “bisexual”, Google made it harder for any user to find bisexual content, whether that be on coming out as bisexual or finding local support groups across the United States and elsewhere.” explains BiNet, a longtime bisexual advocacy organization.

    They are claiming victory in an effort to change that. The group’s head, Faith Cheltenham, had this to say on her personal blog:

    Google search results WILL vary by user, one user has already reported seeing “bisexual” when typing in “bi” while other users don’t even see “bisexual quotes” when typing in “bisexual q”. The block was lifted on August 21st as far as some VERY DEDICATED volunteers can tell. It was on that date that “bisexual q” started producing “bisexual quotes”. Just a few weeks later, I get these results when typing in “bisexual q”.

    For me, typing “bise” produces a suggestion for “bisexual quotes.” I’m not seeing any other suggestions for “bisexual” on its own or anything else, however – but Google’s instant suggestions are different for everybody.

    What’s particularly odd about this is that for years, Google didn’t block autocomplete results for words like “heterosexual,” “homosexual,” “asexual,” and even “trisexual.”

    “We thank Google for making the right call here and for acting as a responsive corporate citizen committed to dignity and equality,” said Kate Kendell, Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

    It’s important to note that Google has always been one of the most vocal companies in their support of LGBT rights.

    [via Slate]

  • Claims of Cyberbullying Epidemic May Be Exaggerated

    Let’s face it, kids are jerks – jerks that have been picking on other kids since the dawn of time. Bullies are a part of life, and sometimes bullying can make its way out of the schoolyard and into the everyday lives of adults – the office, perhaps. Bullying can be physical, but oftentimes it’s emotional. And in the past decade of so, we’ve been told of the rise in cyberbullying.

    Of course, the internet (and more recently, social media) has allowed for verbal abuse to expand past the face-to-face variety. We’ve been told that it’s an “epidemic,” and that kids and teenagers are being abused via Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. on a daily basis. We’ve even heard the horror stories – kids killing themselves because they couldn’t take it any more, or parents participating in the abuse of their kid’s enemies.

    Now, one psychologist is saying that we’ve really overblown the prevalence of cyberbullying.

    His claims came as a presentation at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.

    “Claims by the media and researchers that cyberbullying has increased dramatically and is now the big school bullying problem are largely exaggerated,” said psychologist Dan Olweus, PhD, of the University of Bergen, Norway. “There is very little scientific support to show that cyberbullying has increased over the past five to six years, and this form of bullying is actually a less frequent phenomenon.”

    In fact, citing a few large studies (one including over 450,000 grade 3-12 students), Olweus says that face-to-face bullying is still way more common than cyberbullying. On average, 18% of students reported face-to-face bullying. Only 5% said they’d ben cyberbullied. Also, 10% admitted to bullying (traditionally), while only 3% admitted to cyberbullying.

    Although that study was conducted in the United States, similar studies from other countries like Norway have produced similar results.

    Olweus says that 80 to 90 percent of those who said they had been cyberbullied were also victims of traditional bullying.

    “These results suggest that the new electronic media have actually created few ‘new’ victims and bullies,” Olweus said. “To be cyberbullied or to cyberbully other students seems to a large extent to be part of a general pattern of bullying where use of electronic media is only one possible form, and, in addition, a form with low prevalence…Nonetheless, there are some forms of cyberbullying — such as having painful or embarrassing pictures or videos posted — which almost certainly have negative effects. It is therefore important also to take cyberbullying seriously both in research and prevention.”

    Even if cyberbullying isn’t quite the epidemic that some think it is (and this is just one study), its consequences are well known. Incredibly prevalent of not, it needs to be addressed an counteracted with vigor.

  • Jeff Bezos Gives $2.5 Million To Back Same-Sex Marriage In Washington

    In February, the Washington State legislature passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. That bill had the backing of the Democratic Governor, Christine Gregoire.

    But opponents of same sex marriage garnered enough signatures to put it on the ballot in November, and now the people of Washington will decide the fate of marriage equality in their state. And today, we learn that proponents of same-sex marriage in Washington will have a substantially larger amount of cash at their disposal, thanks to Jeff Bezos.

    Yes, that Jeff Bezos. The Amazon founder and his wife has officially pledged $2.5 million to support same-sex marriage in Washington – as voters will decide its fate via Referendum 74 in November.

    According to the New York Times, this $2.5 million donation not only doubles the cash flow of same-sex marriage activists in the state, but also makes Bezos and his wife MacKenzie one of the biggest monetary supporters of marriage equality in the whole country.

    Bezos isn’t the only high-profile tech head to give money to this Referendum campaign, but he is the most generous. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer each gave $100,000.

    Here’s exactly what the voters in Washington will be deciding on in November:

    This bill would allow same-sex couples to marry, preserve domestic partnerships only for seniors, and preserve the right of clergy or religious organizations to refuse to perform, recognize, or accommodate any marriage ceremony.

    The bill that sparked the Referendum, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6239, also converts all current “domestic partnerships” into marriages after 2014 – except for seniors.

    The group that snagged the signatures and prompted the Referendum calls themselves Preserve Marriage Washington, who says,

    For thousands of years, marriage between one man and one woman has proven to be the cornerstone of our society. Thirty-two other states have already voted to preserve marriage—November 6 is our opportunity to do the same. Since same-sex couples already enjoy all the benefits of marriage in Washington—and same-sex marriage would grant no new rights whatsoever—it’s clear that the other side’s intent in this battle is to reinvent the family and make marriage a genderless institution.

    Apparently, Mr. Bezos disagrees.

    Bezos is known for his interesting investments. When he’s not giving money to social causes, his fortune is spent on a personal space shuttle and a giant 10,000-year clock.

  • Chick-Fil-A’s Anti-Gay Views Got You Feeling Guilty? Try A Homemade Chick-Fil-Gay

    Chick-Fil-A has never really tried to hide the fact that they are a “Christian organization.” If the fact that they are close on Sundays didn’t tip you off, the company has made it pretty clear that they support a “traditional” set of values when it comes to sex and relationships. Oh, and then there are the millions of dollars in donations to anti-gay groups.

    And earlier this week, company president Dan Cathy eliminated all doubt by pleading guilty as charged to supporting a “Biblical definition of the family unit.” Although his remarks were unsurprising, they created a bit of a ruckus among the internet community.

    “Well, guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that…we know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles,” he said.

    As you can imagine, plenty of gay-rights supporters aren’t too thrilled about this and have spoken out against eating at the restaurant, despite the tastiness of their products.

    If you’re a supporter of marriage equality and still want to indulge in a great fried chicken sandwich without the guilt, Hilah Cooking has a solution for you:

    After the massive backlash, Chick-Fil-A has backpedaled a bit on their President’s comments.

    “The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender,” said the company in a Facebook post. “We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”

    [via reddit]

  • Bryan Cranston Breaks Good, Supports Gay Marriage [VIDEO]

    Bryan Cranston is best known nowadays for his award-winning portrayal of Walter White, a man torn between a benevolent nature he once had and the malevolent creature that his decision have forced him to become.

    But when it comes to marriage equality, he’s not really torn at all.

    As part of the Human Rights Campaign’s “American’s for Marriage Equality USA” initiative, Cranston has filmed a pro-gay marriage PSA with his wife and daughter.

    “Gay and lesbian couples should have every right to experience the joys of marriage and family that we do. Please join us and the majority of Americans who support marriage equality,” he says.

    Don’t be thrown off by the fact that he’s still rocking the Walter White look. Check it out below:

    Here’s the message from the HRC about this initiative:

    Love. Honor. Commitment. Three simple words. They are the words that gay and lesbian couples feel in their hearts when they make a commitment to each other. That’s why the Human Rights Campaign believes that same-sex couples should be able to get married. Our campaign, Americans for Marriage Equality, is sparking a national conversation about the power of love, fairness and equality.

    Supporting marriage equality apparently isn’t a tough choice for Bryan Cranston. But I’m sure that Walter White is going to have to make plenty of tough choices when the final season of Breaking Bad debuts on Sunday night. Both of these things make me happy.

    [via Buzzfeed]

  • Google’s Legalize Love Campaign Aims To Protect Gayglers Across The Globe

    Although Google’s high-profile, fierce opposition to California’s anti-gay marriage initiative Prop 8 plants the company firmly in the marriage equality camp, their latest pro-LGBT project isn’t really about gay marriage at all.

    It’s about something even more basic – the rights of LGBT workers to be safe both inside and outside the workplace.

    Dubbed “Legalize Love,” Google has announced the initiative as a “call to decriminalize homosexuality and eliminate homophobia around the world.”

    First outlined at a global LGBT Workplace summit in London, the campaign will officially launch Monday as the first-ever Google Legalize Love Conference in London, as part of the World Pride celebrations.

    Google provides more information on the campaign on their diversity page:

    Though our business and employees are located in offices around the world, our policies on non-discrimination are universal throughout Google. We are proud to be recognised as a leader in LGBT inclusion efforts, but there is still a long way to go to achieve full equality. Legalise Love is our call to decriminalise homosexuality and eliminate homophobia around the world.

    At Google, we encourage people to bring their whole selves to work. In all of our 60 offices around the world, we are committed to cultivating a work environment where Googlers can be themselves and thrive. We also want our employees to have the same inclusive experience outside of the office, as they do at work, and for LGBT communities to be safe and to be accepted wherever they are.

    Google has always been one of the most outspoken on the issue of LGBT rights. For years, Google has celebrated LGBT pride month with colorful search results. But that small gesture is superficial compared to the real work they do.

    This year alone, Gayglers (gay Googlers) and their supporters participated in pride celebrations all across the world in places like Sao Paulo, San Francisco, and Sydney. Google has been consistently against any measure that attempts to discriminate or marginalize the LGBT community and has even put their money where their mouth is by recently expanding their transgender benefits companywide.

  • Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of Facebook, Weds Boyfriend

    Chris Hughes, one of the four guys credited with founding Facebook in a Harvard dorm room, married his longtime boyfriend Sean Eldridge in a ceremony attended by Mark Zuckerberg, Sean Parker, and a couple of U.S. Congresspeople including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

    And unsurprisingly, he posted some photos of the event to Facebook.

    Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled some new Timeline icons for marriage events that featured two males and two female spouses. This move was obviously made in solidarity with the LGBT community, a group that Facebook has supported for many years. Just last year, Facebook granted gay and lesbian couple the chance to be “in a civil union” or “in a domestic partnership” on the site. For things like this, as well as their deep commitment to anti-bullying initiatives, Facebook recently became the first ever social media company to be honored with a GLAAD Media award.

    Hughes and Eldridge got to show off those new icons on the Timeline:

    Chris Hughes marries - gay Timeline icons

    Hughes, along with Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin, launched Facebook more than eight years ago. Hughes, a North Carolina native, is currently the publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, a post he grabbed back in March of this year.

    He also played a big part in the social media strategy that helped Barack Obama win the Presidency back in 2008.

    Of course, Hughes isn’t the only Facebook co-founder to tie the knot recently. Mark Zuckerberg married longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan the weekend after Facebook went public.

  • Facebook Gives Same-Sex Couples New Marriage Icons

    For a while, Facebook has had mechanisms in place to recognize same-sex couples and their relationships. Early last year, you may recall that Facebook added two new relationship statuses to the available list – “In a civil union” and “In a domestic partnership.” Now, Facebook has added another small indicator of their support for LGBT issues.

    Facebook has rolled out new marriage icons that feature both two men and two women. Now, when you see a Timeline story about a same-sex couple tying the knot, you’ll see the appropriate icon instead of the generic one man, one woman icon.

    Here are the types of Timeline marriage stories where the icon is displayed:

    Timeline Married Icons

    And here are the two new icons:

    Facebook has been an open supporter of LGBT issues for years. Apart from including gay-friendly relationship options, Facebook has worked hard to raise awareness for issues like bullying and discrimination. They have been a part of numerous anti-bullying campaigns and recently partnered with various gay rights organizations to form a “Network of Support” for bullied youth.

    For all of this and more, Facebook became the first social media company to receive a GLAAD media award last month. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said they gave Facebook the award “for the company’s strong stand and leadership around bullying prevention as well as its inclusive options for LGBT users.”

    Here’s Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg speaking to the GLAAD media awards:

  • Google’s Gayglers Look Back On This Year Of Celebrating LGBT Pride

    Today, in an official blog post, Google continued their trend of publicly supporting LGBT pride. June is officially LGBT Pride Month, and Google obviously wanted to make a final push in support of the cause before it’s over.

    And they also reminded us of the official term for a gay Googler:

    We encourage people to bring their whole selves to work. And this month Googlers, Gayglers (gay Googlers), and their families and friends took this spirit to the streets in Pride parades and celebrations around the globe.

    Google tells us that dozens marched as part of a Sao Paulo pride parade for the first time ever. They also got over 1,000 Gayglers and their allies to participate in a San Francisco pride celebration, while is almost twice as many as participated last year.

    Google also represented in Sydney by hosting two “Queer Thinking” seminars.

    They remind us that they made a big move earlier in the year by expanding their transgender benefits:

    In addition to supporting the LGBT community outside of Google, we made some changes to our benefits offerings to support our Gayglers. Earlier this year, we enhanced our transgender-inclusive benefits to cover transitioning procedures and treatment in accordance with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care, which includes coverage for procedures like facial feminization for transgender women and pectoral implants for transgender men. We also increased our lifetime maximum coverage for these benefits to $75K—more than double what it had been previously.

    Google has always been one of the staunchest supporters of LGBT issues, dating back to their public opposition to California’s anti-gay marriage initiative Prop 8. For a few straight years, Google has also showed their support for gay rights with colorful designs that accompanying LGBT-related search terms.

    In a climate where such open support can see quite a bit of negative feedback (just ask Oreo), their continued support a testament to just how much Google cares about this issue.

  • Oreo’s Gay Pride Facebook Post Creates A Firestorm (Shocking!)

    June is officially LGBT Pride month, as President Obama continued the tradition with an address last week at the White House.

    “And as long as I have the privilege of being your President, I promise you, you won’t just have a friend in the White House, you will have a fellow advocate for an America where no matter what you look like or where you come from or who you love, you can dream big dreams and dream as openly as you want,” he said.

    LGBT Pride month is a relatively new celebration, having been first declared in 2000 by then-President Clinton. It was picked up again by the Obama administration in 2009, where he called on Americans to “help fight prejudice and discrimination” everywhere.

    And some high-profile companies have heard that call and acted – including the folks at Google, who have implemented a rainbow search bar across all queries relating to LGBT issues like “gay,” “gay marriage,” and “queer.” Google has always been a firm supporter of gay rights, having spoke openly against California’s Prop 8 back in 2008.

    Now, it’s Oreo’s turn (Nabisco > Kraft) to jump in with their support of LGBT Pride month. If you’ve even just glanced at Facebook since Monday evening, you’ve probably seen this post shared by at least a couple of your friends:

    Oreo14 hours ago

    Proudly support love!

    Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  0 comments

    The post is only about 12 hours old but has already received over 34,000 shares and garnered over 145,000 likes. It’s also approaching 19,000 comments, and as you can expect, there’s an exchange like this happening on every page of them:

    +Ew. NOW i cant eat my favorite packaged cookie anymore. Goodbye Oreo’s. I AM AGAINST HOMO’S!

    +I knew Oreos were the only store bought cookie I liked for a reason. I saw this on my tumblr and had to come the Oreo FB page and “share” this with all my friends.

    To the Oreo company: Thank you. It might seem small, it might seem stupid, but like many have already said it helps bring a bit of faith in humanity back to at least this lesbian.

    So thank you for knowing you’ll lose some customers over this but realizing the message speaks louder than the dollar.

    +If this is “gay pride”, then DISLIKE. I’ve got nothing against gays, but there is no reason for this.

    +*slow claps, tears at the eye*
    But really, this is great! Once companies start showing support, then hopefully that tolerance will trickle down to the community and consumers.
    And rainbow Oreos would be the best.

    Although it may not always be the smartest decision to stand up for a controversial issue on Facebook, it’s definitely a sure-fire way to cause a ruckus. It doesn’t matter who Oreo pleased or who Oreo pissed off with this post, one thing is certain – people are talking about Oreo – 156,000+ right now, according to Facebook’s in-house metric.

  • Google, Once Again, Shows Gay Pride With Colorful Search Bar

    June is LGBT Pride Month, a celebration officially begun in 2000 when President Clinton declared the month “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.” Every June since President Obama took office, he has declared the month “LGBT Pride Month,” which recognizes two additional groups – bisexual and transgender.

    In 2011, President Obama called upon Americans to “observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.” And for another year in a row, Google is making a small step toward this with some Easter Eggs hidden within search.

    Searches related to LGBT including LGBT, gay, gay marriage, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, homosexual, and queer will all display a multi-colored pattern right under the search bar. Check it out below:

    This isn’t the first time that Google has given their search box the rainbow treatment for LGBT terms. Last year, during June, Google displayed a more subtle pattern on the right-hang side of the box when users searched any of the terms listed above.

    And it’s not just cute rainbow designs coming from Google is support of LGBT people. Back in 2010, Google made a point to show how they support their LGBT employees by officially announcing that 300 of their employees had marched in San Francisco’s annual Pride parade.

    Plus, Google wasn’t shy back in 2008 about their position on California’s Prop 8, which sought to outlaw gay marriage:

    While there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality.

    Although Google is one of the most outspoken tech companies on the issue of LGBT equality, another high-profile name might be making a subtle push in that direction. Yesterday we learned that Apple’s upcoming iOS 6 will include gay & lesbian Emoji.

  • iOS 6 Will Sport Gay & Lesbian Emoji

    There are a ton (200+, in fact) of new features that iPhone users will get when iOS 6 drops this fall, but one in particular may give the LGBT community a little smile.

    Apple’s new OS will come with some new Emojis, the irresistible little emoticons that have been gracing your text messages for years now. This wouldn’t really be all that interesting if two of the new images didn’t depict two homosexual couples.

    That’s right, alongside the smiling faces of some heterosexual couples you will see a gay couple and a lesbian couple, each holding hands. We’re not quite sure why they lack mouths right now – hopefully that will get fixed before the big release.

    Check them out below:

    Emoji, originally a Japanese thing, started appearing on some smartphones including Windows Phone and the iPhone. Of course, the cute little thins spread around – party due to the fact that people discovered they could tell creative (read: dirty) stories using simply the images provided. It really helped that there was always one that resembled a giant turd with eyes.

    Of course, this might possibly me the most minor new feature to come on iOS 6. Apple’s new operating system will include a completely retooled Maps app, a smarter Siri, full Facebook integration, improvements to Safari and the Mail client, and Passbook (Apple’s answer to Google Wallet). But for many LGBT couples fighting for inclusion every day, no gesture is too small.

    [Via Gizmodo]

  • Sheryl Sandberg Gives Facebook’s Pro-Gay Message At GLAAD Media Awards

    Between anti-bullying campaigns, inclusive options for LGBT users, and the creation of educational support networks, Facebook is one of the most pro-gay public companies around.

    Over the weekend, they were honored by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for their work in supporting the LGBT community.

    At that ceremony, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave a pre-recorded address to the audience, where she thanked GLAAD for recognizing Facebook’s hard work and commitment to being an ally of the gay community. Although plenty of Facebook’s users would not agree with her stance on equality for LGBT people, Sandberg obviously has no problem speaking for Facebook the company and positioning them as a staunch supporter of gay rights.

    “For two decades, GLAAD has recognized those who promote understanding, increase acceptance and advance equality,” said Sandberg. “This is incredibly important and I couldn’t be more pleased that Facebook is among those being honored by GLAAD this year. I’m thankful that GLAAD has recognized our commitment to helping young people make safe, smart and responsible choices online and offline. We’re committed to helping people express who they really are.”

    She goes on to talk about how Facebook’s relationship status choices like “in a civil union” and “in a domestic partnership” help Facebook “reflect real relationships.”

    Check out her video to the gay community below:

    Facebook was given this award for a number of reasons, according to GLAAD. These include their part in paunching the “Stop Bullying” Speak Up” campaign last year, their options for users to declare “civil unions” as relationship status, their support of “Spirit Day,” as well as the fact that their Help Center now includes resources for LGBT people.

    Other people/media entities that received GLAAD media awards include Oprah, Lady Gaga, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, and Dancing With The Stars.

    [h/t VentureBeat]