Flooded with Support for Gay Marriage, Facebook Releases New Pride Emoticon - East Idaho News
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Flooded with Support for Gay Marriage, Facebook Releases New Pride Emoticon

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HT Facebook pride jef 130626 16x9 992?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1372379429960Facebook(NEW YORK) — Google’s not the only technology company making its support for marriage equality known with fun tricks. After the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which granted same-sex couples federal benefits, Facebook has released a new “pride” emoticon along with stats about the social network’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.

According to the social network, 70 percent of Facebook users in America have a friend on the service that identifies as gay, lesbian or bisexual. The percentage is based on those who said they were in a relationship with someone of the same sex and those who listed themselves as “interested in” someone of the same sex or both sexes.

Given those stats, it might not be surprising how vocal the Facebook community has been about Wednesday’s DOMA and Proposition 8 news. According to the social network, as of Thursday morning, there were four million mentions of the news on the site. To boot, Facebook says that 25 million profile pictures were changed on Wednesday – one of the highest on the social network ever, says the company. Many in support of the decision changed their photos to the HRC equality sign logo, which became very popular in March.

And Facebook is catering to its audience. On Thursday it rolled out a rainbow or pride emoticon. Compose a new status through the websites, click on the emoticon option (next to the camera icon), choose the “Feeling” selection and then type in “pride” and the rainbow emoticon will be added to your status.

“I’m proud that our country is moving in the right direction, and I’m happy for so many of my friends and their families. #PrideConnectsUs,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on the service on Wednesday afternoon.

Google has similarly shown its support for the new legislation. Type “Gay” or “Gay Pride” into the search box this month and it will be highlighted with a rainbow search box.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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