The equality box spreads on social media

It's no doubt that social media is taking over. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. In the case of this post, it's a positive.

A square box with thick pink horizontal lines (the mathematical equal symbol) has been doing the rounds on all major social media platforms. The image was organised by the Human Rights Campaign when the U.S Supreme Court was taking up arguments in key marriage right cases.

The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBT equality-rights advocacy group and political lobbying organisation in the United States. The organisation has more than a million members and supporters.Their logo consists of a yellow equal sign imposed onto a blue background. The logo was then subsequently changed to the colour of pink and red on the 25th of March this year in support of same-sex marriage.

The image has replaced profile pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and elsewhere. The Campaign made it available in red for the colour of love and reached tens of millions of shares within 2 days.


Influential characters such as Beyonce to George Takei to Bud Light and Martha Stewart took part in posting and tweaking this simple image. Beyonce tweeted: "It's about TIME!! #EQUALITY #MarryWhoYouLove".

Other users tweaked the image slightly such as swapping matzoh for the pink lines as Passover begun or others added the Internet sensation known as "Grumpy Cat" with the text explaining that marriage equality would make him happy. Below you can see some of the examples where the image was used:

Peppermint Patty and Macie from the cartoon, Snoopy.

The Facebook "Like" logo.

The Beatles crossing the infamous Abbey Road

Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street.

Martha Stewart created this red velvet cake.

The popular series, True Blood, added fangs to the logo.

Regardless with how an image was tweaked or by who, the fact was that if one was to see this image, they knew today what it stood for and this was due to the fact that social media had allowed it to spread like wildfire to a vast amount of people in a short amount of time.