Technology / Internet
Facebook allows users to customise gender after consulting with gays
14 Feb 2014 at 06:18hrs | Views
AFP Photo / Manjunath Kiran
Facebook has announced that it will allow users to customise their gender, after consulting on the subject with gay and transgender advocacy groups.
The 50-odd options, which include "bi-gender", "transgender", "androgynous" and "transsexual", will allow people "to express themselves in an authentic way", Facebook said in a post.
Users can also choose whether to be referred to as "he", "she" or "they".
According to BBC, the new options will initially only be for those using the site in US English.
The new options were formulated after consultations with five leading gay and transgender rights' organisations, Facebook says.
"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," Facebook engineer Brielle Harrison told the Associated Press.
"For the first time I get to go to the site and I get to specify to all the people that I know what my gender is and I can let only the people that I want to know, see that," she said.
The 50-odd options, which include "bi-gender", "transgender", "androgynous" and "transsexual", will allow people "to express themselves in an authentic way", Facebook said in a post.
Users can also choose whether to be referred to as "he", "she" or "they".
According to BBC, the new options will initially only be for those using the site in US English.
The new options were formulated after consultations with five leading gay and transgender rights' organisations, Facebook says.
"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," Facebook engineer Brielle Harrison told the Associated Press.
"For the first time I get to go to the site and I get to specify to all the people that I know what my gender is and I can let only the people that I want to know, see that," she said.
Source - BBC
