Actually ok with the Facebook filter thing

[sqbr]

I've seen a lot of mogai people expressing discomfort/disdain for the plethora of rainbow filtered icons on facebook, and I don't mean to tell them they're wrong for their personal reaction, but I like it. I'm tired so here's my reasons in dot points.

• rainbows are pretty
  
• I can still see who people are (this is why I never participate in memes where everyone uses the same picture. Too confusing!)
  
• I now know those people are at least basically ok with same sex relationships! This does not go without saying for everyone I follow.
  
• Everyone who follows those people knows it too. This normalises mogai acceptance in general and marriage equality in particular. Since most people I follow are Australian and marriage equality hasn't been legalised here, that's not insignificant. And this is the case even if the people with the filters are doing it because of peer pressure/fashion.
  
• It's nice to feel part of a global celebration of civil rights (yes, of a United States specific event). Especially because rainbows are so festive!
  
• it's a really mild, ambiguous way for me to express my sexuality in a situation where I'm not 100% out.
  
• On my feed at least it's NOT all straight people, in fact I'd say it heavily skews lgbt. And the fact it's popular with straight people means the rest of us aren't unambiguously outing ourselves by using it.
  

I think that's about it! I know there are arguments against it, I'm not saying it's an unalloyed good. But it felt like a lot of people were assuming that the ONLY people who like it were straight and nope.

Here's two contrasting articles about it I came across via Facebook:
More than 26 million people have changed their Facebook picture to a rainbow flag. Here’s why that matters.
If you’re straight you need to stop using rainbow profile pics.

Comments

[moonvoice]

I basically agree with all of this. Plus I've felt really heartened seeing so many of the straight people on my dash/feed using the rainbow icons. (Who knows, maybe they too are not entirely out on a space like Facebook. :) ). But my dash slants more towards queer occupation, and yeah, pretty much most of them are using it barring a few who are using the trans flag instead.

[sqbr]

Plus I've felt really heartened seeing so many of the straight people on my dash/feed using the rainbow icons

Yeah, me too!

[bunny_m]

Gotta say, I like that first article, because not only does it list what facebook/icon changes can't/don't do, but also points out how they do contribute to changing attitudes.

The second article mostly made me angry because the writer was being dismissive of my and implicitly all heteronormative folks who participated, but mostly because dickhead was trying to tell me how I felt and why I changed my icon.*

The number of comments telling the writer to go to hell cheered me immensely for how they accurately covered my feelings/reactions whilst simultaneously helping quiet that little whisper in the back of the head that suggests maybe you are just that shallow.

(*) But hey, it's not all bad, that instinctive "You patronising fuckwit" made me realise just a tiny, tiny fraction of how terrible being mansplained to much feel like. Really must try harder to never do that to anyone.

[sqbr]

Yeah I wasn't a fan of that article, and felt vindicated a few days later when I saw how rainbow coloured the "friends of yours attending" section was on the marriage equality rally page. Social justice isn't always easy, and it's worth poking at the general tendency of people to latch onto the easiest option that makes it look like they care, but that doesn't make individual easy actions inherently bad or a sign of an unwillingness to do harder things as well.

(nb idk if you went to the rally, I didn't have the energy myself. But I know you and a lot of the other people with rainbow icons genuinely care about mogai stuff, and it was a nice example of that)

[torachan]

It does make it hard to tell at a glance who is who, at least if I'm reading it on my phone and the icons are tiny, but otherwise I am 100% for it. I have a lot of coworkers/former coworkers and such friended on my FB and as I'm not out at work (as queer (open to being out) or trans (stealth 4eva)), it was really heartening to see so many people change their icons. (I didn't change mine (mostly lazy) but I "liked" every rainbow icon that came up on my feed.)

[sqbr]

I "liked" every rainbow icon that came up on my feed

Me too.

[whatistigerbalm]

Oh my god, fuck The Tab. That article is a lazier, more ignorant thing than any small message of support.

[sqbr]

Yeah that article is terrible. But I haven't seen anyone else against the rainbow filter articulate their issues in an easy to link to form.

[fred_mouse]

I wholeheartedly agree with your list. The rainbows made me happy, and it didn't feel like just celebrating the US victory, and anyway, I don't have an issue with the (presumably) US based FB people doing something really public to celebrate something that counted as really significant to at least some of them.

[sqbr]

Yeah!