Facebook introduced a new way for users to list their gender on Thursday, supplementing the traditional male and female options with a drop-down list of some 50 other gender titles such as “transgender” or “bi-gender”.
The new gender terms are currently available to the social networking giant’s 159 million US customers. Facebook did not give details about when or if they would become available to the site’s more than 1 billion users worldwide.
Users are able to change their gender identities by updating their timeline information at the bottom of their cover photo. The options also allow users to select their own preferred pronoun and to choose the people they wish to share their custom gender terms with.
“We’re proud to offer a new custom gender option to better express your own identity on Facebook,” the company said in a posting, adding that it had collaborated with leading lesbian, gay and transgender advocacy groups to come up with its list of gender identities.