Have you noticed all of the red and pink boxes appearing on Facebook and Twitter avatars today? The boxes are being used by supporters of gay marriage equality. Among those supporters are various celebrities who are supporting the defensive movement against California’s gay marriage killing Proposition 8 bill.
On Tuesday various groups changed their standard avatars to support the opposition for Proposition 8. For example, the Human Rights Campaign changed their typical blue and yellow logo to a red and pink version featuring an ‘equals’ sign. Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Charlie Joughin told MSNBC.com:
“Red is a symbol for love, and that’s what marriage is all about. We wanted to give people an opportunity to show their support for marriage equality in a public and visible way.”
This movement isn’t just about organizations as hundreds of thousands of users around the web, possibly millions of users, have changed their avatars, myself included. On Twitter Kate Walsh, Lance Bass, Sophia Bush, and Ben Affleck all changed their profile pics on Twitter.
Here are a few of the Tweets that corresponded with their avatar changes:
Use this photo for your profile pics this week in support of marriage equality during these very… instagram.com/p/XVCe0XRsXT/
— Lance Bass (@LanceBass) March 26, 2013
Use this photo for your profile pics this week in support of marriage equality during these very… instagram.com/p/XVCe0XRsXT/
— Lance Bass (@LanceBass) March 26, 2013
I am seeing lots of red squares on twitter today. Nicely done guys! Spread the word. Change your pic. #equality
— Evan Rachel Wood (@evanrachelwood) March 26, 2013
SCOTUS: When Steven Spielberg Tony Kushner make the movie about today you are going to want to be the Tommy Lee Jones not the Lee Pace.
— Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) March 26, 2013
RT if you agree that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness applies to #LGBT Americans twitter.com/HRC/status/316… #Time4Marriage @hrc
— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) March 26, 2013
Ben Affleck took his message one step further, mention President Obama’s own stance on gay marriage equality:
I agree. RT @barackobama: RT if you agree. #MarriageEquality, twitter.com/BarackObama/st…
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) March 26, 2013
And of course no social conversation is complete without George Takei. He actually didn’t change his Twitter profile but he took to Facebook where he changed his profile pic. Takei also posted the follow Facebook message for his friends in the South:
Have you changed your personal Twitter and Facebook profile pics in support of gay marriage. Surely if you don’t support gay marriage you would be willing to support butter!
I'd much rather see a profile picture of someones face than a symbol, regardless of how I feel about what the symbol represents. Profile pictures are supposed to be of YOU, not a symbol.