Facebook added more than 50 new gender options in the “about” section of users’ profiles to recognize gender identities other than male and female, which some Syracuse University students feel is important progress for the LGBT community.

On Feb. 13, Facebook announced on its diversity page that the company collaborated with a group of leading LGBT advocacy organizations to offer a list of gender identities users can select from.

Al Forbes, a second-year graduate student studying higher education who identifies as a trans* man, said it is a “small step” forward for trans* visibility.

“It’s progress,” he said. “We’re recognizing that there are more genders than male and female.”

Forbes said he began to question his gender identity as an undergraduate student at SU. He initially identified as genderqueer and chose neither male nor female as his gender on Facebook, he said. During this time, he felt most comfortable using they, them and their pronouns on Facebook, he said.

Forbes did not want to lie about his identity on Facebook and also wanted to reflect his own history of recognizing more than two genders — male and female, he said.

“Society is very binary — you’re either a woman or a man,” he said. “Not declaring a binary gender was an important moment in my journey.”

Forbes later began to identify as a trans* man and now uses masculine pronouns for himself, he said. He has not updated his gender status yet on Facebook, but he said he plans to look through all the options to choose which one he most closely identifies with.

“It’s good for everyone to be able to self-identify their gender in ways that they’re comfortable doing,” Forbes said.

He said he regularly posts and shares articles on Facebook related to the experiences of the trans* community, which he feels is seen more than a person’s gender status in the “about” section of a profile. But Forbes said updating his gender identity on Facebook is still important since he wants to be visible as trans*.

However, Forbes noted that there is still work to be done to fully recognize gender equality on Facebook. For instance, although Facebook has added more than 50 gender options, a person has to choose between male, female and custom, under which the new options are listed.

“If you don’t fit in the binary, you’re other. You’re custom,” Forbes said.

While he appreciates Facebook allowing members to choose the pronoun they wish to use, he said other pronouns not available on Facebook are used within the LGBT community. “Xe,” “ze” and “hir” are sometimes used for those who are gender fluid, he said.

Forbes and others on campus also said more options need to be added to the “interested in” section.

Erica Fisher, design director for OutCrowd magazine, SU’s LGBTQA magazine, said she and other editors at the magazine have discussed Facebook’s new gender options. While they agreed that Facebook has taken a step forward, it can make more progress for gender equality, said Fisher, who is also a senior advertising and informational management and technology dual major.

“We should be recognizing it as a positive, but also what are the steps we can take to be more inclusive?” Fisher said. “Can they just add more than binary genders in that section?”

She said she believes the change on Facebook was delayed because many people have trouble understanding gender identities and the difference between gender and sex.

Jesh Joseph, a student assistant at the LGBT Resource Center, said the change was discussed recently in his QSX 112: Sexualities, Genders, Bodies class. He said his classmates agreed that the change was a step in the right direction toward gender equality.

“While this is an important step forward, this has needed to be done for a long time,” said Joseph, who is also a junior psychology and child and family studies dual major.

Some of Joseph’s Facebook friends have changed their gender statuses, and he recently changed his to cisgender male, which means his gender aligns with his gender expression, he said.

Joseph said he made the change to show that he recognizes there are other genders besides the binary male and female and that they are neither alternative nor abnormal.

Published on February 19, 2014 at 1:29 am

Contact Kristen: kaeskow@syr.edu