Male? Female?
If you all would take just a moment to go and read this entry over on Dreamwidth and then go to Livejournal feedback to tell them what you think, I'd be grateful. Be polite, but firm.
Short version, upcoming LJ code update will make specifying a gender mandatory, and it will force transgender/genderqueer/gender-fluid users to choose between "male" and "female." Current settings allow "unspecified," which is what I've changed mine to, for whatever effect that will have.
I find this shitty for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the likely reason for it: advertising. But mostly, goddamn, I just hate explaining that gender's not a binary. For fuck's sake.
Spread the word, as the code update is probably going up later this week.
(Also? I'm not doing Gender 101 in the comments here, because the legitimacy of any given person's identity is simply not a matter for debate, period.)
ETA: Received this:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.
At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.
The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.
Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.
Regards,
LiveJournal Community Care Team
Hopefully that's the truth and not a backpedal. It IS the fastest actual response to a fail issue I have ever seen from Livejournal. So good for them.
Short version, upcoming LJ code update will make specifying a gender mandatory, and it will force transgender/genderqueer/gender-fluid users to choose between "male" and "female." Current settings allow "unspecified," which is what I've changed mine to, for whatever effect that will have.
I find this shitty for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the likely reason for it: advertising. But mostly, goddamn, I just hate explaining that gender's not a binary. For fuck's sake.
Spread the word, as the code update is probably going up later this week.
(Also? I'm not doing Gender 101 in the comments here, because the legitimacy of any given person's identity is simply not a matter for debate, period.)
ETA: Received this:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.
At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.
The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.
Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.
Regards,
LiveJournal Community Care Team
Hopefully that's the truth and not a backpedal. It IS the fastest actual response to a fail issue I have ever seen from Livejournal. So good for them.