Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Facebook won much acclaim in the LGBT community by configuring their website to allow a great many choices their subscribers may use in their user profiles. Where most websites permit simply male or female, and perhaps a few all encompassing terms such as transgender or transsexual, Facebook consulted with the LBGT community to identify as many gender identities the community encompassed. Subscribers are also provided with additional tools such as which pronouns to use when they are referred to. Subscribers can use ten different options for gender or can choose to keep this information private.

Most outside the LGBT are not familiar with the nomenclature of these new identities but what Facebook is trying to accomplish is to provide as many choices for the individual to describe themselves in a manner as close as possible to what each of them can identify with. With as large a subscriber base as Facebook commands, many believe this will offer some insight and understanding of how analog gender is becoming.

Facebook said it made the changes available for its 159 million US Subscribers to give them more choices in how to describe themselves. Alex Schultz, Facebook’s director of growth, said. “Hopefully a more open and connected world will, by extension, make this a more understanding and tolerant world.”

The new list of choices includes:

• Agender
• Androgyne
• 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 Woman
• Trans*
• Trans* Female
• Trans* Male
• Trans* Man
• Trans* Person
• Trans* Woman
• Transfeminine
• Transgender
• Transgender Female
• Transgender Male
• Transgender Man
• Transgender Person
• Transgender Woman
• Transmasculine
• Transsexual
• Transsexual Female
• Transsexual Male
• Transsexual Man
• Transsexual Person
• Transsexual Woman
• Two-spirit

Advocacy group GLAAD issued a statement praising Facebook’s efforts toward more acceptance and expression for its subscribers and users, issuing a statement on their website which read in part:

Facebook announced today that it will now offer a custom gender field for transgender and gender nonconforming people. The new feature, which GLAAD helped develop, enables users to select a custom gender option, indicate preferred pronouns and adjust privacy settings for the custom gender field. It will be available to those who use Facebook in U.S. English.

“This new feature is a step forward in recognizing transgender people and allows them to tell their authentic story in their own words,” said GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis. “Once again, Facebook is on the forefront of ensuring that the platform is safe and accessible to all of its LGBT users.”

Previously, Facebook users were required to select either “male” or “female” in the gender identification field. Users now the option to select “Custom.” Once users select custom, they will have the ability to enter up to ten identification terms (e.g., transgender, androgynous, genderqueer, etc.) to better express their gender identities. Users who use the new custom gender options will also have the ability to choose the pronoun they’d like to be referred to publicly and select which groups of their Facebook friends they feel safe sharing their gender field with.

“Facebook users from across the country have been asking for the ability to reflect their gender accurately, and today Facebook showed they have been listening,” said 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 full press release may be viewed HERE

If facebook can at times be both a barometer and a catalyst of changes in American society this might be a sign of things to come. There might be a time when such things as male or female identification might only one day be thought of as limited to what chromosome pair a living organism might have. The important factor being who the person is as they consider themselves.

Are we at a the beginning of a new era of thinking?

Sources:
Denver Post
GLAAD Website

By Darren Smith
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.