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Background
On March 25th, 2013, the day before the beginning of the United States Supreme Court’s deliberation of California’s same-sex marriage ban known as Proposition 8, the LGBT rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign[1] posted a Facebook status update urging its followers to change their Facebook profiles to its official “equal sign” logo in pink and red color scheme. In less than 24 hours, the post garnered more than 16,900 likes and 60,000 shares.
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Notable Developments
Online Reaction
Human Rights Campaign’s new profile photo quickly spread across the social networking site, reaching more than 9 million people and 77,000 shares directly from the group’s Facebook page. In the following hours, several celebrities and public figures picked up on the trend by switching their profile photos on Facebook and Twitter, from actor George Takei and singer Lance Bass to Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and at least 13 United States Congress members.
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News Media Coverage
By early morning on March 26th, the Facebook profile trend had been picked up by Mashable[2], TIME Magazine[3], ABC[7], MSNBC[5] and CNN,[4] not to mention its spread across other social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. In contrast, Vice published a column titled “The Red Marriage Equality Sign on Your Facebook Profile is Completely Useless,”[6] expressing skepticism towards the trend as “just another form of passive activism that isn’t advancing the cause.”
Notable Derivatives
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Search Interest
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External References
[1]Facebook – Human Rights Campaign
[2]Mashable – Facebook Turns Red as SCOTUS Marriage Equality Hearings Begin
[3]TIME Magazine – What Is the Red Equal Sign All Over Facebook and Twitter?
[4]CNN– Emblazoned in red, same-sex marriage dominates social media
[5]MSNBC– Seeing Red: Human Rights Campaign’s marriage equality logo goes viral
[6]Vice – THEREDMARRIAGEEQUALITYSIGN ON YOURFACEBOOKPROFILE IS COMPLETELYUSELESS
[7]ABC– What’s That Red Equal-Sign on Facebook All About?
[8]Human Rights Campaign – Sign the Majority Opinion as the Supreme Court hears arguments!