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Facebook stops defining gender for its users

Facebook stops defining gender for its users

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Last year Facebook took a socially responsible step forward when it allowed users to choose from preset custom genders like "cisgender" or "transgender." But while the company worked with GLAAD to generate the custom genders, the move was not completely celebrated because users were still made to choose from pre-defined options. Now, it appears those options are gone as the company has started rolling out a new version of its custom gender field. This version still populates suggestions as you type, but also allows users to type in any word they wish to represent themselves with across Facebook.

Facebook gender

It works the same way as the "infinite" gender options Google+ rolled out back in December, and the options that Facebook introduced last year still apply here, too. After typing in a custom gender, users can choose a pronoun they want to be called throughout the site, with female, male, and neutral options (her / him / them). Facebook users can also tweak privacy settings specific to gender, meaning they can also select which audience is able to see a user's gender, or if they even want it to be public at all.

There's no word yet on how fast the option will roll out to all users. In the meantime, people who aren't logged in when they arrive at the Facebook homepage still only see male / female options on the quick sign-up section of the page.