Google is one with the LGBT community in celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay and lesbian marriages in all 50 states in the United States.
Just minutes after news broke out that the highest court in the land has made it the law that all states must issue marriage certificates to all couples, may they be gay, lesbian or straight, who want to officially tie the knot, Google began placing rainbow-colored banners on its search pages for queries related to gay marriage.
If a user goes to Google.com and types in things such as "gay marriage," "LGBT" and "same-sex marriage," Google displays a paper people chain decked in the colors of the rainbow, the symbol for the LGBT community, on the upper right corner of the search page. On the upper left, users will see a small heart in the same rainbow colors.
Google is a known vocal supporter of same-sex marriage rights, with employees participating in several pride marches around the world. In 2014, Google put up a livestream of the New York City Pride March, which is held every year to commemorate the police raid of a legendary gay bar in the West Village.
It is also one of more than 300 companies that provided a business case for gay marriage in a friend-of-court brief filed before the court. Google, along with the likes of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Disney, said that the ban on same-sex marriage is disadvantageous to businesses because it creates logistic and economic barriers.
"The burden imposed by inconsistent and discriminatory state laws of having to administer complicated schemes to account for differential treatment of similarly situated employees breeds unnecessary confusion, tension and diminished employee morale," the companies said.
Google is not the only Silicon Valley company that is waving its rainbow banners in celebration of the victory of the LGBT community, members of whom have been fighting for the right to marry the person they love for decades. On Facebook, users can take advantage of a simple tool that superimposes a rainbow filter over their profile pictures. Apple CEO Tim Cook, the first openly gay CEO in the masculine technology industry, took to Twitter to share in the celebrations.
Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 26, 2015
The Supreme Court has voted 5-4 to outlaw all gay marriage bans in every state. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said:
"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. As some of the petitioners in this cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."
Photo: Charlie Nguyen | Flickr
