The site that Zuckerberg built appears to have made a small - but for some, vitally important - addition and now allows ‘In a civil union’ and ‘In a domestic partnership’ as valid relationship options.
When the change was made is unclear, but users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and Australia now have the ability to choose the two new options, according to ZDNet. More than 35 nations recognise civil unions in some form and same-sex unions are legal in some U.S. states, although they are not recognised by the federal government.
While Facebook"s official blog makes no mention of the change, the company"s manager of public policy communications, Andrew Noyes, told The Huffington Post it had been a ""highly requested feature"".
""We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook,"" he said.
The change was apparently made in consultation with Facebook"s Network of Support, which counts several Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender community advocacy groups among its members. Many of those groups told The Huffington Post they were pleased with Facebook"s actions yesterday.
""Facebook has always been an empowering place for gay people--it"s a place you can be yourself in relative safety. This is a natural progression of that. In most places, gay Americans can"t yet marry but they may be able to formalize their relationship short of marriage. This change reflects that reality. Well done,"" Equality Matters president Richard Socarides told the site via email.
Meantime, tech blogs have caught wind of a quiet change to News Feeds only posts from people who you interact with regularly, or from those who have interacted with you recently, will appear. The change has apparently been rolled out to all users and applies by default.
Reversing the change, however, is fairly simple - scroll to the bottom of the News Feed, click ""Edit Options"", click ""Show Posts From"" and change the setting to ""All Of Your Friends and Pages"".
Image Credit: Matthew Jones