Facebook users can choose between 50 ‘gender identity’ options
– Facebook has 1.2 billion users – and now it has nearly as many gender categories to match. The social media website unveiled a new feature today that allows users to jettison male or female and describe themselves by dozens of “gender” labels.
Is Facebook now Gaybook?
Under the “gender” section of their profile, users may click on “custom” and type in dozens of options, including “pangender,” “genderqueer,” “bigender,” "agender,” “gender questioning,” “androgynous,” “cisgender,” and “neutrois.”
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality joked, “Do you remember the good old days when there were only five genders?”
He told LifeSiteNews he was thankful they had not included the term “genderf—k,” a growing self-identity among those who embrace a fluid view of sexual identity. Still, Facebook's list of potential “gender” terms is large and growing.
“Way to go, Facebook – smash that gender binary!” wrote John Becker of The Bilerico Project, congratulating the social media giant for its decision.
"Over the past few years, a person's Facebook profile truly has become their online identity, and now Facebook has taken a milestone step to allow countless people to more honestly and accurately represent themselves,” said Chad Griffin, president of the homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign. He hoped that Facebook's move will inspire others “in supporting individuals' multifaceted identities.”
“The rising tide of equality cannot leave anyone behind,” agreed Ellen Kahn, also with HRC.
But many warn the notion of gender in perpetual flux is fraught with danger and potential harm, because, unlike virtual reality identities, human bodies come in only two genders. Encouraging young people to question – and possibly change – their biology could leave physical and psychological scars that cannot be healed.
“This is one area where literally your whole body is changed,” LaBarbera said, noting that he has talked with a large and growing number of former transgender people who now regret their decision.
One of them is Walt Heyer, a successful man whose male-to-female sex-change operation made him view himself as a “complete fraud” and “impostor.” He abused cocaine and alcohol, and engaged in a failed suicide attempt, before embracing his manhood. He now counsels other people struggling with their gender identity to embrace their biological sex.
Facebook's decision came the same day HRC released a new report which found that “gender-expansive” teens were twice as likely as those confident of their gender to use drugs or alcohol.
This is not Facebook's first venture into the social revolution. In July 2012, Facebook unveiled new relationship status settings for those in same-sex “marriages” or civil unions. The feature allowed homosexuals to choose an online icon featuring two brides or two grooms. Facebook had just won the GLAAD Media Award.
Last July, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and 700 company employees rode a float in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade. Politically, Zuckerberg has said he supports Democrats Barack Obama and Corey Booker but he held a fundraiser for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last February.
Zuckerberg, who at age 29 has an estimated net worth of $19 billion, has more recently turned his attention to granting amnesty to the 11 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States by founding the group FWD.us. Zuckerberg said amnesty is “one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time” and recently distributed a memo to Congress describing “The Shocking Extremism Behind Anti-Immigrant Groups.”
LaBarbera said, “It seems like we're all helpless [against] these corporations.”
“The growth of the transgender movement itself is unbelievable,” LaBarbera told LifeSiteNews. “I would bet that the transgender lobby alone spends more than the entire pro-family movement on this culture war. We're not serious, and they're dead serious.”
“If people don't start getting serious about this, we're just going to go further and further downward,” he said.
