Facebook has been working with GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to expand user options for genderqueer and transgender people on the social media website.
Previously when selecting gender, users were only able to select “male” or “female”. There is now a “custom” option available in which users can enter the term of their choice. Those who use the “custom” gender option will also have the ability to choose the pronoun they’d prefer to be used publicly and select which Facebook friends they feel comfortable sharing their gender field with.
These new settings will be available to those who use Facebook in U.S. English. According to Allison Palmer, GLAAD’s former Vice President of Campaigns & Programs who worked on the project with Facebook and current GLAAD staff, “Facebook’s new gender options will make a difference to many transgender and gender nonconforming users, who are now empowered to accurately describe their own identities on the platform.”
The company maintains that it will continue to work with LGBT organisations so that people can comfortably express their identities while online.
More information is available here.
Sophie Joske
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