Facebook is planning to make its sweeping new gender options available to users outside the US. It’s this week added 50 or so options for American Facebook members to use, including transgender, cisgender, gender fluid, intersex , gender variant, androgynous, pangender and transsexual, The social networking behemoth has also offered US users the ability to use the pronoun they'd like to be referred to publicly, including the gender-neutral they/their. Facebook has also tweaked its privacy settings to let users control who they share their custom gender with. "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," Facebook said in a post on its Diversity page. "An important part of this is the expression of gender, especially when it extends beyond the definitions of just 'male' or 'female,' " the post continued. "So today, we're proud to offer a new custom gender option to help you better express your own identity on Facebook." Facebook said it worked with a group of leading lgbti advocacy organisations to come up with the new gender categories. "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, a former GLAAD vice president, who worked on the project with Facebook. Facebook says it will make the options available outside the US, but no date has been set for this. However international users are getting around this by saying they are in the States.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 16th February 2014 - 10:02am