Homophobes on Facebook are protesting against a trend of ‘rainbow’ Facebook pictures – by superimposing the American flag over their face.

In honour of this month’s Pride celebrations and the US Supreme Court’s verdict on same-sex marriage, the social network unveiled a tool that allows users to show their support for LGBT people by superimposing a rainbow flag over their profile pictures.

More than 26 million Facebook users have applied a rainbow filter to their profile picture – with countless brands, politicians and celebrities also taking part, gathering over 500,000,000 comments.





Terminator star and former Governor of Califorina Arnold Schwarzenegger also took part – but the stunt has angered homophobes on the website.

The right-wing news website creatively titled RightWingNews is attempting to fight back – by making a special tool that lets users superimpose the American flag over their picture, instead of the rainbow one.

It is not known how many people have taken part, but it’s doubtless a fraction of those with the rainbow pictures.

Using a US flag as a symbol of opposing LGBT rights is an interesting choice, given that two of the three branches of the US government – President Obama’s executive branch and the Supreme Court’s judicial branch – have now resoundingly supported equality.

The state of Mississippi is currently considering proposals to ban state weddings altogether, in order to prevent gay people from tying the knot.