Gay-friendly options unveiled on Facebook

Facebook has added two new relationship statuses — ‘civil union’ and ‘in a domestic partnership’ — to help homosexual couples define their romantic arrangements on the social networking site.

Facebook has added two new relationship statuses — ‘civil union’ and ‘in a domestic partnership’ — to help homosexual couples define their romantic arrangements on the social networking site.

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These options will be available to users in the US, Canada, France, UK and Australia.

Facebook, which has 600 million users worldwide, made the change after consulting with various rights groups, according to the NY Daily News.

The two new options augment the site’s existing relationship statuses that include ‘single’, ‘in a relationship’, ‘in an open relationship’, ‘engaged’, ‘married’, ‘divorced’, ‘widowed’ and ‘separated’.

Rights groups hailed this as a significant step forward for the greater equality of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community.

Same-sex marriage licences are granted only a few of the 50 states in the US. Such marriages are called ‘civil unions’ or ‘domestic partnerships’, depending on the state.