Rainbow pride: Facebook's diversity team is letting its users freely self-identify their gender. Photo: Facebook
Facebook has given another thumbs up to social progression with the introduction of a custom gender option for all Facebook US English users worldwide.
Now, rather than being restricted to female or male, users can enter just about whatever they like into a custom field – whether it's transgender, transexual or lumbersexual – and customise who gets to see that information.
The change expands upon the social network's introduction last year of more than 50 gender options for its United States users to choose from in a drop-down list.
Freedom of choice: Facebook is rolling out custom gender options to all Facebook US English users. Photo: Screenshot: Facebook
Until now, Australian Facebook users had been restricted to choosing between male and female options when specifying their gender.
Transgender Victoria executive director Sally Goldner welcomed the news. "It's a very affirming approach that respects the reality of gender in humanity," she said.
"In a situation where it's necessary to specify gender, it's incredibly important that name, pronoun and gender marker – three critical affirmations of a trans – or gender-diverse person – have the possibility that everyone's included.
Social inclusion: A selection of Facebook 'stickers' which can be used in chat. Photo: Facebook
"So a process that has that is very, very positive and very welcome."
When Fairfax Media tried out the custom gender tool, we were able choose from the original 50-plus list, but we weren't able to write a new identification in the gender box. A Facebook spokesperson said some users may not have full functionality until the rollout was completed.
Facebook diversity coordinator Ari Chivukula, a software engineer who identifies as transgender and has worked on implementing both iterations of the custom gender tool, told Fairfax that community feedback on its initial list of gender options had been "enormously positive", but there was a clear demand to take it a step further.
"If you see any sort of form and there's a gender to fill out you have the choice of male or female, maybe 'other', but that's about it," Chivukula said.
"We thought about it and decided the next step would be to allow free-form expression to self-identify.
"It was about trying to make sure that there weren't categories and that our users were able to identify as they wanted and express non-binary genders."
Users will still have to abide by Facebook's terms of use, which means derogatory or offensive language when specifying gender is a no-no.
The original list of gender options was developed in conjunction with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) advocacy groups in the US, which Facebook refers to as its "Network of Support".
Chivukula said the project was a team effort from the company's global diversity team, which began as an internal hackathon driven by employees.
"As a trans person, when I was hired by Facebook [in 2013] I was really interested in working on something like that and really excited to see there was already an effort underway when I joined that team, and I was able to see it to completion," Chivukula said.
Arguably Facebook's attitude towards social inclusion is more advanced than it is in Australian politics, with users able to insert gay pride "stickers" featuring same-sex married couples, and more, into their chat threads.
The social network is also trying to address diversity within its own ranks.
Last year, Facebook and other tech giants including Apple, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter released data showing they vastly underemployed African-Americans, Hispanics and women, with white and Asian males making up the bulk of staff.
"We build products to connect the world, and this means we need a team that understands and reflects many different communities, backgrounds and cultures," Facebook global head of diversity Maxine Williams said, following the release of the data.
In an interview last month Williams added that diversity was "imperative" to the company's growth.
"If we don't get it right, we risk losing relevance in an incredibly diverse world," she said.
Facebook doesn't always get it right, though. Last year it was forced to apologise to LGBTI communities after its "real name" policy caused loss of business and personal distress to professional drag queens.
It subsequently clarified that its policy was for users to be able to express their "authentic" identity, and moved to change the way it handled verification of user accounts.
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