Facebook has added civil unions and domestic partnerships to its relationship statuses in a move which makes the Social networking site more inclusive of gay and lesbian couples.
The new relationship status was added to the Facebook site in the US, the UK, Australia, France and Canada among others.
“This has been a highly requested feature from users,” Facebook’s Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy communications, told the Huffington Post.
Before the changes the set of relationship options were limited to: single, in a relationship, married, engaged, widowed, separated or divorced.
The move has been commended by gay-rights groups.
“By acknowledging the relationships of countless loving and committed same-sex couples in the U.S. and abroad, Facebook has set a new standard of inclusion for social media,” Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) president Jarrett Barrios wrote in a statement.
GLAAD and several other gay-rights groups met with the company to push for the changes to the site.
Many more people had set up Facebook groups urging the site to change its relationship statuses.
