Australia: Facebook Should Include Transgenders
Queensland’s gay and lesbian community has demanded Facebook widen its profile options to include transgenders. They say that simply clicking male or female when signing up to the social networking website is too limiting.
"They should definitely do it and they'd be quite surprised by how many people there are in the community who are transgender that do use Facebook," said Shelley Argent, spokeswoman for Brisbane's Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Association.
Dr Angela Dwyer, from the Queensland University of Technology law faculty, said Facebook needed to accommodate the wide range of young people who use the website."Gay, bisexual, same-sex attracted and then with gender there's transsexual, transgender – they're all words with which people identify themselves."
Facebook product manager Naomi Gleit said people could "remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in Mini-Feed".
So is listing yourself as male or female or the option of stating nothing enough?