Photo: Via Facebook.Well, this is a nice story, isn't it?
Yes, with over 500 million people on Facebook, there's bound to be many, many social-network-using individuals who are, as they say, "gender queer" in one sense or another. There are transexuals, of course — but that's merely the tip of a very large iceberg of non-normative gender identifications that people use.
Up until today, though, Facebook was exclusively traditional in its profile options for gender. You were male or female, and you had to pick. This left a large amount of people out in the cold, unable to express themselves.
Today, with an announcement from Facebook Diversity (Facebook's official diversity page), that's changed. As it states, "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." Thus, the leading social network has rolled out custom gender options. You're now free to pick multiple genders, set various genders to public or private, and select the pronoun you feel most comfortable associating yourself with. What's more, the choices of gender have grown considerably with a list vetted by LGBT advocacy organizations — "cisgender," "transgender, "intersex," and others are included.
It's a graceful solution to a longstanding problem, but one, however, that is still only slowly becoming available on the site. When we tried to test the function, the "Custom" setting did not appear. Even though their wait should be short, those looking for the opportunity to represent their true selves on Facebook may have to be patient a little while longer. (The Verge)