Pictures of a Canadian trans man's post-op chest are now back on Facebook, after initially being taken down after another user complained they were 'graphic'. Dominic Scaia Dominic Scaia's topless photos, showing his newly-flat chest with some scarring where his breasts were removed, proved too much for a complainant - and Facebook's strict rules against nudity and 'graphic post-surgical imagery' led Scaia's entire account to be removed. "I'm a man, and I posted my chest online, and that should be allowed – period," he told Canadian website Xtra.ca. "There are thousands of transgendered people on Facebook, and I think the message this sends to them is your photos aren't safe, and that's not fair." Protests by Scaia and his friends gained momentum, and now Facebook has re-activated Scaia's profile, inviting him to re-upload all his photos. "While we strive to apply our policies as consistently as possible, with over 350 million users on Facebook there may be instances when we fail to do this and we do our best to rectify these situations as swiftly as possible," a Facebook representative explained. GENDER LIMITS Facebook.com is also under fire from transgender people and their supporters who believe the website should include other gender options along with the current 'male' and 'female'. "Forcing members to identify as male, female, or nothing at all discriminates against all those who do not fit neatly into the categories of male or female," says an official petition on the website which has over 18,000 members.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 19th January 2010 - 11:07pm