This Violates Facebook Standards. Why?

Posting Facebook photos of you kissing a significant other may be many things: Cute, over-sharing, tacky. But what it should not be is a violation of Facebook's terms of service, and usually it isn't — unless you're gay, apparently. Facebook suspended the account of a gay man, Boston-based porn actor Jesse Jackman, when he posted a photo of himself kissing husband Dirk Caber. The social network told Jackman that the photo violated community standards, which prohibit things like sharing graphic imagery, nudity and "pornographic content."

After Jackman posted the kissing photo, it quickly began getting comments — many of them not-so-nice. Jackman said that he "received multiple public death threats after posting this photo, endured countless homophobic slurs, and received dozens upon dozens of hate-filled messages."

"Facebook did nothing about those disgusting comments, choosing to censor love instead of hate," Jackman said.

Later that day, Jackman received a notice from Facebook that they had suspended his account. So he did what any social-media savvy person does when outrageous things happen: He took to Twitter.

This isn't the first time Facebook's treatment of gay kissing has caused controversy. In 2011, the site temporarily blocked a photo of two men kissing at a gay rights protest; it later reneged and apologized for the mistake. That same year, it removed an illustration of two gay men kissing — and, once again, later cleared the cartoon and apologized for its error.

As with these previous times, Facebook eventually reinstated Jackman's account and restored the photo, albeit offering no explanation or apology. Jackman has been taking the whole thing with remarkably good humor.

He also encouraged other same-sex couples to post photos of them kissing.

In a blog post, Jackman thanked fans for support and urged people to "always, always remember that LOVE IS LOVE, and LOVE CONQUERS ALL!"

Photo via Jesse Jackman