Google’s gay pride flap

cnnmoneytech:

screenshot via CNN.com

I live a few hundred feet away from The Stonewall Inn, the West Village haunt where the gay rights movement began. As you might suspect, after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York state on Friday, people were dancing and  popping champagne in the streets outside the Stonewall to celebrate.

Under fire, however, is how Google chose to celebrate not only the new law, but Gay Pride month as a whole.

As our CNN.com cousins wrote a few days ago, Google’s gay pride doodle is rather, well, hidden compared with the others. Typically, Google’s beloved doodles transform its logo on the homepage and search pages.

But for Gay Pride month, all through June  a little rainbow pops up next to Google’s search bar only when users search for certain “pride-related” terms, including “gay,” “lesbian,” “homosexuality,” “LGBT,” “marriage equality,” “bisexual” and “transgender.”

Critics, including Nicholas Jackson at The Atlantic, think Google’s effort is disappointing. Other commend them for making any effort at all.

I’m not going to weigh in on that, but I did sort of expect Google to make a stronger statement in light of its powerful “It Gets Better” video featuring LGBT employees including a transgender woman.

So, I put it to you: What do you think of Google’s Gay Pride Month Doodle? Is it too little, just right, or not even an issue Google should broach? -Julianne