Facebook now provides a "fill in the blank" option for users who do not personally associate with any of the other gender options the company provides. Facebook provides 58 gender options, and the "fill int he blank" will be the 59th. USA Today reports:
"We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way," Facebook said.
The new gender option is available to everyone who uses Facebook in the United States.
"By empowering people to talk about their gender in their own words, Facebook continues to be a leader in its commitment to respecting and protecting LGBT users," GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said. "Part of being who you are is just being able to describe yourself in a way that feels right to you."
Facebook expanded gender identity in February 2014. Now people can choose from options such as Androgyne, Gender Fluid, Intersex and Transgender.
ABC News writes:
"Now, if you do not identify with the pre-populated list of gender identities, you are able to add your own," said a Facebook announcement published online Thursday morning 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.
"We're hoping this will open up the dialogue," Chivukula said.
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. "Labels and identities are powerful in that they give a sense of community, a way of articulating one's experience."
