It’s about time!
Facebook has finally added “domestic partnership” and “in a civil union” to their relationship status options.
Users in the U.S., Canada, France, the U.K., Australia, and several other countries were able to choose from the new options on Friday.
Facebook’s manager of public policy communications Andrew Noyes says:
“This has been a highly requested feature from users. We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook.”
This has been a positive change for the LGBT community and many people are speaking out about it. Michael Cole-Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign says:
“As LGBT people face a patchwork of relationship recognition laws, this gives people more tools to adequately describe their relationship. Facebook has been a company that has tried to be inclusive of the LGBT community and this just one sign of it.”
And president of Equality Matters, Richard Socarides, added:
“Facebook has always been an empowering place for gay people–it’s a place you can be yourself in relative safety. This is a natural progression of that. In most places, gay Americans can’t yet marry but they may be able to formalize their relationship short of marriage. This change reflects that reality. Well done.”
This is definitely a positive change in the right direction.
What do U think?