Equal Signs and Facebook Photos

So I'm guessing everyone has heard on some level, but two important cases will are in front of the Supreme Court that have to do with gay marriage and marriage equality. You've probably heard of this because of the viral movement that has happened on Facebook and Twitter (and maybe other sites but I know of those two for sure) and that's changing your profile picture to the equal sign.

I wanted to post on here about it not only because I find it an interesting piece of digital rhetoric but also because I feel that this post will stop me from screaming at people on Facebook who are commenting on it and have no idea what they are talking about.

When I first saw the equal signs instead of my friends profile pictures I wasn't sure what it was about. A quick Google search quickly filled me in. I had heard about DOMA and the other case before, but I had forgotten because i had been paying attention when it was first said that they would go before the Supreme Court; and while I don't know much about that branch of our government I am aware at how freaking long it takes them to actually look at a case, so it had slid to the back of mind during that time. However, this movement reminded me and I quickly changed my profile picture and started keeping an eye on the news.

Many of my friends changed their pictures as well before and after me. I even had one friend message me and ask what it was about. I've also noticed some interesting variations; among which are parodies I like and don't agree with (but that's a different post).

There have also been those who appose this. Most recently I saw a status by a Facebook friend that said she found it annoying she now had to read people's name's because they all had the same profile picture of two rectangles (she's a math major and she feels that an equals sign does not work the way people think it works). What made really got to me was a comment on their status where someone said something along the lines of 'vote how you want but changing your profile picture won't change things'.

I don't agree with this; hence why I'm in this class, really. I don't agree with the idea that changing your Facebook picture won't change things because of what I did the first time I saw those pictures; I Googled what they were about. I highly doubt I was the only one. Other people on my feed had been sharing articles and talking about it as well. The fact this profile movement has worked so well has caused a lot of the articles that people are sharing to be written. It has caused a friend to ask me about it and get informed about something he knew nothing about. It's a response that has caused responses - the parodies. It's caused status posts that I have agreed and not agreed with, and caused discussion that is specific to this part of the LGBTQ+ movement and ones that have to do with other parts of the movement.

Will people's profile pictures decide the these two cases? No. The changing of the profile picture is just one of the many actions I am taking in response to the discourse surrounding the situation.

Anyways, that's my thoughts on this. What do you guys think?