How the Internet Rallied to Support Marriage Equality

During last week’s Supreme Court arguments over California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, the internet exploded with support for marriage equality. Social media provided a particularly public venue, and as a Facebook analysis of the demographics of the burst of equality activism noted,

For a long time, when people stood up for a cause and weren’t all physically standing shoulder to shoulder, the size of their impact wasn’t immediately apparent. But today, we can see the spread of an idea online in greater detail than ever before.

The passion may have been spontaneous, but the activism wasn’t — well, not entirely. The Human Rights Campaign in particular worked hard to mobilize support online, as this short Mashable overview of its online outreach strategy shows. As for results, while the Supreme Court is essentially immune to online outreach, the broader public isn’t — and these activists were targeting a much bigger court, that of public opinion. For details on who got involved and what they did, check out Rad Campaign’s excellent infographic after the break (click for a larger version).

– cpd