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More and more people are coming out on Facebook
Timed to coincide with Spirit Day, Facebook's Research and Data Science division has published a report outlining how increasing numbers of US users that identify as lesbian, gay, bi or transexual have come out on the social network this year. "Not only has the total number of Americans who have come out on Facebook risen dramatically, but so has the number coming out each day." Given the sheer heft of 1 Hacker Way's user population, the findings offer a huge data sample to delve into. The Facebook team noted a particular spike in the number of users that came out follow the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision in late June. The number of people coming out per day on Facebook is now on track to be three times what it was in 2014. (The researchers defined coming out as: "updating one's profile to express a same-gender attraction or specifying a custom gender.") While many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender users are coming out online, the company faces a continued battle to repair its image with many in the LGBT community following its "real name" policy.
GLAAD updates Spirit Day app for 2015's anti-bullying event
A lot of people have been tinting their social media profile pics in purple every mid-October for the past five years as a way to support the LGBT youth and to take a stand against bullying. One easy way to do that is to use the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD) "Go Purple for #SpiritDay" app, which it has just refreshed ahead of this year's event on the 15th. In addition to generating purple profile pics, the app has a direct donation link to GLAAD, as well as new anti-bullying resources and sharing options. It's now available for download from both iTunes and Google Play devices -- just note that you'd have to watch a video ad from its sponsor (Toyota Financial Services) when you first fire it up.
