Facebook Dating Adds New LGBTQ+ Gender Option

29th October 2018 Dominic Whitlock

The gender identity section of Facebook Dating is reportedly going to be updated to increase its inclusivity.

According to app-insider Jane Manchung Wong, when a user chooses which gender they most closely identify with there will be an option reading “Non-Binary and/or Two-spirit”.

LGBTQ Health describes a two-spirited person as being someone who “identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity.”

Previous screenshots from the Colombia release showed that there were five gender options, and non-binary was listed by itself.

The updated list may be due to user feedback from the initial testing in Colombia, rather than the internal Facebook test that was conducted in August.

Wong has also suggested that there will be a non-compulsory option in the introduction section for a Dating member to describe their gender at length.

Firstpost.com stated that gender identities will not automatically be displayed on profiles. However, Facebook will only suggest matches that identify with the gender that a user said they were interested in when they signed up.

This morning, Wong posted a tweet that claimed Facebook are working to ensure that Dating complies with GDPR. This would confirm that Dating will eventually be rolled out in EU countries.