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Facebook Adds a Ton of New Gender Options in Support of LGBT Community

Facebook continues to give tons of support to the LGBT community, and today they are taking another step in that direction by offering users a host of new options when they select their gender. “...
Facebook Adds a Ton of New Gender Options in Support of LGBT Community
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Facebook continues to give tons of support to the LGBT community, and today they are taking another step in that direction by offering users a host of new options when they select their gender.

    “When you come to Facebook to connect with the people, causes, and organizations you care about, we want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self. An important part of this is the expression of gender, especially when it extends beyond the definitions of just “male” or female.” So today, we’re proud to offer a new custom gender option to help you better express your own identity on Facebook,” said the company in a Facebook Diversity post.

    There are now dozens of new options, apart from the simply “man,” “woman,” and “neither” options that Facebook originally offered. You can now select genders of “Transexual Man,” “Trans Woman,” “Cisgender,” and more.

    Facebook is also letting users select which pronoun they want used when Facebook references them to other users. For instance, you can now have Facebook say that it’s “their birthday” instead of “it’s his birthday” of “it’s her birthday.”

    Probably more important, however, is the new granular privacy controls that Facebook is building into the gender identification. If you wish to identify yourself as a Transgender Woman, for instance, but don’t wish for certain friends to see that – you can now customize who sees that information the same way you do when you post anything.

    For more info on how to customize your gender, head here.

    This is just another example of Facebook showing strong support for LGBT equality. In the past, the company has made grand public gestures in support of the community, like filing a brief with the Supreme Court before their high-profile rulings on same-sex marriage last year and throwing their weight behind LGBT tax equality legislation in California. They’ve also made small changes on the site level, like giving same-sex couples their own marriage icons and allowing users to show their pride with a rainbow icon following the aforementioned DOMA ruling.

    Image via Facebook Diversity

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