Facebook offers 59 shades of grey gender ID options
Facebook users who don’t fit in any of the 58 gender identity options offered by the social media giant are now being given a rather big 59th option: Fill in the blank.
“Now, if you do not identify with the prepopulated list of gender identities, you are able to add your own,” said a Facebook announcement published online Thursday and shared in advance with The Associated Press.
Facebook software engineer Ari Chivukula, who identifies as transgender and was part of the team that made the free-form option, thinks the change will lead to more widespread acceptance of people who don’t identify themselves as a man or woman.
Growing trans-community
Alison C.K. Fogarty, a gender identity researcher at Stanford University, said giving users control over the words describing their gender is a significant step in social recognition of a growing trans-community, especially coming from the world’s largest social media company.
“People are still fighting to make room for gender identity within the socially constructed binary of male and female,” Fogarty said.
In February 2014, Facebook expanded gender identity from male and female to a list of dozens of options, including Androgyne, Gender Fluid, Intersex, Neither and Transgender. Those choices will all still be available.
His? Her?
People who choose a custom gender can also choose the pronoun they would like to be referred to publicly: he/his, she/her or they/their.
Facebook has a setting for users to control the audience who sees their gender.
Last year’s changes created an online stir, with thousands of comments—some grateful, others confused or hostile. But staff at Facebook said there was full support to take it even further this year, from CEO Mark Zuckerberg on down.
1.23 billion users
As of Thursday, the free-form option rolled out to US users, while the custom gender-identity option with a list of words was available in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina and Denmark.
One thing that has not changed is an “interested in” option for Facebook users to define whom they might want to date. That option still only allows men or women, but users can click both options, one option or neither option. They can also hide it entirely.
Facebook, which has 1.23 billion active monthly users around the world, would not release how many users have chosen gender identity options beyond man or woman, citing privacy concerns and a general practice of not sharing user information.
In February 2014, Facebook expanded gender identity from male and female to a list of 58 options. They are the following:
1. Agender 2. Androgyne 3. Androgynous 4. Bigender 5. Cis 6. Cisgender 7. Cis Female 8. Cis Male 9. Cis Man 10. Cis Woman 11. Cisgender Female 12. Cisgender Male 13. Cisgender Man 14. Cisgender Woman 15. Female 16. Female to Male 17. FTM 18. Gender Fluid 19. Gender Nonconforming 20. Gender Questioning 21. Gender Variant 22. Genderqueer 23. Intersex 24. Male 25. Male to Female 26. MTF 27. Neither 28. Neutrois 29. Nonbinary 30. Other 31. Pangender 32. Trans 33. Trans* 34. Trans Female 35. Trans* Female 36. Trans Male 37. Trans* Male 38. Trans Man 39. Trans* Man 40. Trans Person 41. Trans* Person 42. Trans Woman 43. Trans* Woman 44. Transfeminine 45. Transgender 46. Transgender Female 47. Transgender Male 48. Transgender Man 49. Transgender Person 50. Transgender Woman 51. Transmasculine 52. Transsexual 53. Transsexual Female 54. Transsexual Male 55. Transsexual Man 56. Transsexual Person 57. Transsexual Woman 58. Two-Spirit 59. __________________
