If you like it, you should put a ring on it....

facebook note by Beyoncé

.... or how painting social media red has shown America's support for marriage equality.

"Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva...." The Impressive Clergyman, Princess Bride

Seeing RED

this one's mine

percentage of Facebook Marriage Equality profile pict

Take a look around any social media site and you will see pink and red Equality symbols everywhere. It is a newly created version of the Human Rights Campaign symbol, which is a blue square with yellow equal sign. The new logo, initially created by  Anastasia Khoo, takes that symbol and changes the colours to Red and Pink for love. People got really creative with the concept, George Takei picked it up, and then it went Viral. 

some of the creative marriage equality symbols

While the Supreme Court deliberates on Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Prop 8, millions (approximately 2.7million on Facebook alone) of people are showing their support for marriage equality. 

At last count, there were 13 Members of Congress that have gone red  in the fight for marriage equality, including Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, and Representative Dan Kildee of Michigan.


The Tide has Already Turned

"A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that nearly half of all Americans now support the legalization of same-sex marriage. The 47% approval rate is a 26-point increase than just a decade ago, and an 8-point increase in the last four years alone.

While the new Millenial voters account for some of the change, opposition to gay marriage has declined in every age group surveyed, including those over 65 years of age.

Among those older participants specifically, opposition has fallen by 18 points.

Americans under 30, who were nearly evenly divided on the issue in 2004 now approve of it by a two-to-one ratio.

There are no divisions when it comes to religion either – Protestants, Catholics, and the unaffiliated alike are also opposed to the idea in decreasing numbers." - Augusta Christensen for Lawsonary

Elected politicians who once pledged to "protect tradition" have lined up eager to announce their support of marriage equality. Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said he changed his mind after learning that his son is gay. Red-state Democrats Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana, also switched, as did Virginia’s Mark Warner. Dick Cheney became vocal about his support of marriage equality for his lesbian daughter, Mary after he was out of the White House. They joined Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law during his 1996 re-election bid but is now calling on the Supreme Court to undo his mistake.



Add Clint Eastwood to this growing list of Republicans who support gay marriage, although I don't see him adopting a red and pink equality symbol. He told GQ in 2011 that he "doesn’t “give a f*** about who wants to get married to anybody else” and that instead of “all this bulls*** about ‘sanctity,’” we should “just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.” How very Dirty, Harry.

Anne Hathaway, whose older brother Michael is gay, received an award from the HRC in 2008, in her speech she states, “There are people who have said that I'm being brave for being openly supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption, basically of gay rights but with all due respect I humbly dissent, I’m not being brave, I’m being a decent human being....My family and I will help the good fight continue until that long awaited moment arrives, when our rights are equal and when the political limits on love have been smashed.”  More recently she donated a portion of the proceeds from her wedding photos to to non-profits advocating for marriage for same-sex couples.

I couldn't write this blog without including the song that inspired it. Rapper Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' "Same Love". The lyrics and video are both powerful and beautiful, painful and joyous. The video starts with the birth of a child, shows his childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age, all woven within the notions of love, intolerance,  acceptance and equality. He is born to mixed race parents, a concept that reflects how similar the fight for racial equality is to the fight for marriage equality.

The tide has turned, 

and what seemed impossible only few years ago, is now inevitable.  

Marriage will win. 

America has already decided.