DHAKA: Facebook introduced a new option allowing users to identify themselves as a gender other than male or female.

The basic user profile for members in the United States now includes a customisable category with a variety of gender identifiers, including "transgender," "intersex" and "fluid," the social networking company announced on Thursday.

"There`s going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing, but for the few it does impact, it means the world," Facebook software engineer Brielle Harrison, who is undergoing a gender transformation from male to female, told the Associated Press news agency.

Facebook said it wanted users to "feel comfortable being your true, authentic self."

The social networking site, which has more than 1.2bn members worldwide, said it worked with a leading group of gay and transgender advocacy organisations to develop the list of gender options, previously limited to male or female.

Rival site Google+ already had an "other" option for gender.

Source: aljazeera.com

BDST: 1911 HRS, FEB 14, 2014