Tuesday, March 26, 2013

What's With That Red Equals Sign on Facebook?

Posted By on Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 2:44 PM

If you've been on Facebook today, there's a fairly good chance that you've noticed the masses of profile pictures featuring a pink equals sign over a red background—and you've probably noticed the masses of marriage equality statements coming from those folks.

There's good reason for that: Equal rights activism group Human Rights Campaign started a social media movement to support marriage equality by urging its supporters to "turn the Internet red" by changing their social media accounts to prominently feature logos and messages of equality. And man, is it working.

From MSNBC:

“Red is a symbol for love, and that’s what marriage is all about,” Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Charlie Joughin told MSNBC.com on Tuesday. “We wanted to give people an opportunity to show their support for marriage equality in a public and visible way.”

Since Monday afternoon, the original photo posted on the HRC’s Facebook timeline has been seen by over 9 million people, Joughin said, and shared over 77,000 times just from the organization’s Facebook page directly. Celebrities and politicians alike have replaced personal Facebook profile pictures with the HRC’s red logo—actor George Takei, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley—and even more have spoken out on Twitter.

“We never expected anything like this—for it to go viral,” HRC’s Joughin said. “So we’re excited. But more importantly, we’re excited that the public support for marriage equality has been so great.”

So there you go — it's a show of support for marriage equality and equal rights for all.

Something we're all for here at Tucson Weekly.

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