Thursday, February 24, 2011

Gay-Friendly Facebook?


For the longest time, Facebook’s romantic-status options were limited to nine (9), namely: (1) single, (2) in a relationship, (3) engaged, (4) married, (5) it’s complicated, (6) in an open relationship, (7) widowed, (8) separated, and (9) divorced. And in fact, it is already a feat that items (5) and (6) are included, making it easier for Facebook users to choose an accurate description of their romantic relations.

Just Thursday last week, Facebook supposedly made the choices more accurate through the addition of "civil unions" and "domestic partnership" to the list. For the sake of satisfying curiosity, I immediately checked the availability of said romantic-status option in my profile. ‘Lo and behold, there was none.

So then I thought, maybe the new status option were intentionally made inapplicable to users in the Philippines. Given the advancements in ICT, I’m pretty sure Facebook can track whether a user is Philippine-based or not. True enough, I later learned that the new status options are made available only to the US, Canada, Britain, France and Australia.

But the question is, why exclude the Philippines especially when so many Filipinos are Facebook users?

Some gay rights are now slowly gaining acceptance, and Ang Ladlad is proof to this. However, the Philippine government is very far from sanctioning same-sex marriage. In fact, there are about three (3) anti-same sex marriage bills which have been introduced and are pending before the Senate and Congress. Of course, I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg is wise enough not to ‘accidentally earn’ the ire of Filipino officials, who in turn, are obviously and equally cautious not to displease church officials lest they lose endorsements next elections.

Enough said.


- Phebean Belle A. Ramos, entry #14
Read this: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20110220-321277/New-Facebook-status-options-applauded-by-gay-users
Image Source: http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-more-realistic-facebook-relationship-status-options/

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