TORONTO

Facebook rolled out a change Thursday that had LGBT and human rights organizations in Toronto cheering the social media giant.

Users who navigate the site in U.S. English can now list the gender identity of their choosing.

People can edit their gender by clicking on basic information in their profile and choosing “custom” from the drop-down menu beside gender.

Some of the new options include two-spirit, gender variant, gender fluid, gender questioning, trans, and transgender.

Facebook will also allow people to choose who exactly can see their custom gender.

Irene Miller, president of Toronto Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), said the all-inclusive option “will make a lot of people very happy.”

“This will help (youth) feel more confident within themselves and let everyone that they’re in contact with be comfortable in how they address them,” Miller said.

Helen Kennedy, executive director with Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, called it a big step to “recognize some of the most marginalized people in our society.”

“I think it’s important also to note that in Canada, we currently do not have gender identity or gender expression included in the Canadian Human Rights Act or the Criminal Code,” she said.

Bill C-279 is currently before the Senate. If adopted, it would prohibit discrimination on gender identity and gender expression grounds.

Kennedy hopes Canada will take a cue from Facebook and “now start recognizing trans identities under protected grounds in our Human Rights Act.”

Facebook made the announcement through its Facebook Diversity page.

“We collaborated with our Network of Support, a group of leading LGBT advocacy organizations, to offer an extensive list of gender identities that many people use to describe themselves,” the post said.

“Moreover, people who select a custom gender will now have the ability to choose the pronoun they’d like to be referred to publicly — male (he/his), female (she/her) or neutral (they/their).”