After talking about it for years, Facebook have decided to roll out some new options for gender for the minority who don't identify with the standard binary options, male or female. In fact, they seem determined to cover every single alternative imaginable no matter how small the number of people it applies to, as there will soon be FIFTY options to choose from.
This isn't really going to affect most people in any way, but to those few it does, this will mean everything. It's great that everyone can feel accepted and supported in their day to day life.
But fifty does seem excessive, especially looking at the list which seems to cover a few options multiple times with slightly different wording. Do we really need an option for cis female AND cis woman? Male-to-female and also it's acronym MTF? The list could be narrowed down a bit without actually leaving anyone out.
This will put Facebook ahead of other social networks such as Google+ which currently offers 3 options; male, female, other. Although there's nothing wrong with Google+'s approach here, as this does at least allow for the idea that not everyone will identify with male or female. We may soon see this approach on forms; instead of two boxes to choose between for gender, we could see a trend towards 3. We're unlikely to see a trend towards 50, but it's harder to fit that many boxes on a paper form than it is in a drop-down menu.
The full list of gender options soon to come: Agender, Androgyne, Androgynous, Bigender, Cis, Cisgender,
Cis Female, Cis Male, Cis Man, Cis Woman, Cisgender Female, Cisgender Male,
Cisgender Man, Cisgender Woman, Female to Male, FTM, Gender Fluid, Gender
Nonconforming, Gender Questioning, Gender Variant, Genderqueer, Intersex, Male
to Female, MTF, Neither, Neutrois, Non-binary, Other, Pangender, Trans, Trans*,
Trans Female, Trans* Female, Trans Male, Trans* Male, Trans Man, Trans* Man,
Trans Person, Trans* Person, Trans Woman, Trans* Woman, Transfeminine,
Transgender, Transgender Female, Transgender Male, Transgender Man, Transgender
Person, Transgender Woman, Transmasculine, Transsexual, Transsexual Female,
Transsexual Male, Transsexual Man, Transsexual Person, Transsexual Woman,
Two-Spirit
Ari Carrington