Google doodles celebrate just about every holiday or landmark, both internationally and locally. Recently, the Google doodle to mark
guitar icon Les Paul’s 96th birthday was a huge hit, and there was also a wonderful dancing logo to mark what would have been Martha Graham’s 117th birthday. Other logos marked the 160th anniversary of the First World Fair, the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and of course, the 122nd birthday of Charlie Chaplin. This doesn’t even take into consideration doodles to mark Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Earth Day, or the anniversary of the first documented ice cream sundae (April 3, for those who want to check).

But so far there has been no Google doodle to mark Gay Pride Month.

There have been country-specific Google doodles, like the Czech doodle marking the 100th birthday of Vaclav Ctvrtek (a children’s author with very few vowels in his name), Paraguay’s Independence Day (sadly, limited to Paraguay, and the all important Slavonic Alphabet Day (limited to Bulgaria). And that’s just 2011. Last year Google celebrated such important events as the fiftieth anniversary of the Flintstones (Sept. 30), Oktoberfest (though for some reason, that was limited to Germany), and even my birthday (which happens to coincide with Brazilian Independence Day).

A whole week was dedicated to Sesame Street Characters (November 2009). And yet there has been nothing whatsoever to mark Gay Pride.

Then again, Googlers who look up LGBT themes, are treated to a rainbow spilling off the end of the results window (unless you look up
Santorum).

All Google would say about the omission is that “We enjoy celebrating holidays and special events at Google. As you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to celebrate on our site, and have a long list of those we’d like to celebrate in the future.”

The company also stated that “During the month of June, Google is celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Pride. For some Pride-related search queries, we are showing a rainbow at the end of the search bar.”

While some speculate that the decision was intended so as not to offend those people who would be offended, even the criticism of the decision is tempered, in recognition of all the work Google has done to support the LGBT community.

Nicholas Jackson of The Atlantic writes, “I’m disappointed in Google’s decision today, but none of this is meant to demean the company’s previous work in support of gay rights, which includes a 90-second contribution to the It Gets Better Project that was televised nationally last month and a 2008 announcement in opposition to California’s Proposition 8.”

He concludes, “I just want the same treatment as Vivaldi, who was properly celebrated even 269 years after his death.”  Or at least as Elmo, who is still alive and annoying.

Then again, to paraphrase the Soothsayer in Julius Caesar, when told, “The ides of March are come,” one can say, “Ay, Caesar, but not gone.” There’s still another week of Gay Pride ahead.
Read More at CNN.