Social media giant continues to respect and protect its LGBT users by adding a "fill in the blank" choice to its list of gender identity options.
Users who do not identify with the already existing list of gender identities can now add their own, Facebook announced Thursday, Feb. 26. According to PCMag, in 2014, Facebook added customizable gender terms, allowing users to label themself as male, female, transsexual, intersex, gender fluid or androgynous, among others. This not only allows users to control which audience sees their custom gender but also allows them to choose a preferred pronoun such as he/his, she/her, they/their.
In order to help people better express their identities, Facebook added a custom option, the Facebook Diversity page announced. The page further adds that the social media giant teamed up with Network of Support, a group of leading LGBT advocacy organizations, in order to offer an expanded list of identities that many people use to describe themselves. The page further adds that a year of offering this feature, Facebook has now expanded it to include a free-form field.
In order to develop customizable gender terms, GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) collaborated with Facebook last year.
According to NBCNews, Ari Chivukula, Facebook software engineer whose identity is transgender, contributed to create the new free-form option. Chivukula told the Associated Press that Facebook hopes this move will lead to more widespread acceptance. According to Facebook, this setting will give people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way.
Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD CEO said in a statement, Facebook continues to be a leader in its commitment to respecting and protecting LGBT users. Ellis added that part of being who they really are is the ability to describe them in a way they feel is right. All U.S. English Facebook users will have access to the extended customer gender option.
Facebook Diversity page noted that in addition to the ability to add up to ten gender terms, Facebook users also have the control over the audience that can see their custom gender, in the wake of the challenges some people face with sharing their true gender identity with others.
