I’m all for Facebooks new gender options. As a monogamous, heterosexual male it is not that important to me personally, but I know that to a great many people it is very important. I’m glad that those people can now express who they are more fully.
Beyond that, obvious, benefit though there are other advantages. Facebook has users all over the world and in every age demographic. Kids in places like Kansas and Russia have Facebook and they have Google.
That means that ignorant adults in those countries can educate themselves a little more but it also means that young people who are questioning their identity or who know that they are ‘different’ from their peers but aren’t sure how to express it can now learn more. It means that they can move beyond issues of male or female, straight or gay and even possibly find other like minded individuals to talk with.
If people really understood the implications there would likely be truckloads of people on their way to protest in front of Facebook’s headquarters. Russia and Nigeria probably would have blocked Facebook by now. Fortunately for the world, most people simple enough to want to protest Facebook’s move are also too simple to understand why they should.