Until now Facebook users have had to choose "male" or
"female" as a gender when signing up for an account, but from today
people will be able to select one of 50 options including "intersex"
and "androgynous".
The site also allows users to select a gender-neutral pronoun,
so the site would suggest to friends that they "wish them a happy
birthday" rather than "wish him a happy birthday".
Facebook software engineer Brielle Harrison, who helped
implement the changes and is herself undergoing gender transformation from male
to female, told AP: "There's
going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing, but for the
few it does impact, it means the world.
"All too often transgender people like myself and other
gender nonconforming people are given this binary option, do you want to be
male or female? What is your gender? And it's kind of disheartening because
none of those let us tell others who we really are.
"This really changes that, and for the first time I get to
go to the site and specify to all the people I know what my gender is."
Facebook's
new gender options
The company said that the changes
would initially be rolled-out to users in North America, but as of this morning
Facebook accounts in the UK were also able to access the new gender options.
University of California thinktank The Williams Institute estimates that
700,000 people in the US identify in some way as transgender.
The list of 50 options was drawn up
after consultations with a range of gay and transgender groups, but will still
allow users to keep their sex entirely private if they wish to do so.
Other websites have already
implemented similar policies as transgender issues became more widely
considered. Google+, for instance, allows users to choose from
"male", "female" or "other". The company says
that around one per cent of people identify as "other".
Currently Facebook targets adverts to
users based on their gender. If a users chooses an option other than male or
female then adverts will be selected based on the pronoun they choose to be
mentioned with.
The list of 50 gender options in full
Agender
Androgyne
Androgynes
Androgynous
Bigender
Cis
Cis Female
Cis Male
Cis Man
Cis Woman
Cisgender
Cisgender Female
Cisgender Male
Cisgender Man
Cisgender Woman
Female to Male
FTM
Gender Fluid
Gender Nonconforming
Gender Questioning
Gender Variant
Genderqueer
Intersex
Male to Female
MTF
Neither
Neutrois
Non-binary
Other
Pangender
Trans
Trans Female
Trans Male
Trans Man
Trans Person
Trans*Female
Trans*Male
Trans*Man
Trans*Person
Trans*Woman
Transexual
Transexual Female
Transexual Male
Transexual Man
Transexual Person
Transexual Woman
Transgender Female
Transgender Person
Transmasculine
Two-spirit
Source: Telegraph
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