Sometimes neither "male" nor "female" is the correct category.
A prominent lawmaker and gay rights activist in Nepal says he has asked Facebook to include a third option for people who do not identify themselves as male or female.
| First openly gay parliamentarian Sunil Babu Pant |
Sunilbabu Pant said he has written to Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes asking an option as "third gender" or "others" when signing up because people who do not identify as male or female continue to be sidelined by Facebook's options.
Pant said he has not received any response from Facebook but was hopeful.
Pant is the only openly gay parliament member in Nepal and has been campaigning for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the Himalayan nation.
He is also remarkably good at getting international attention, hosting an unofficial lesbian
wedding last year and now planning an "LGBTI Olympics" scheduled for September or
early October. Pant is, after all, also a travel agent.
Gay rights supporters convinced Nepal's Supreme Court to decriminalize homosexuality in
2007 and then ushered in legal protections for sexual minorities. The country's census
also allows citizens to count themselves as "other" and Pant indicated that will soon be the
norm for all Nepali government record keeping.
"I encourage you to do the same," Pant wrote, "For the sake of respect for gender-variant
people around the world who want to socialize, organize, and be a part of your 21st century
internet revolution. I encourage Facebook to celebrate diversity."
In another successful endeavor, Pant announced last week the grand opening of Nepal's
"first gender-neutral toilet" — paid for out of his Parliamentary Development Fund.
"Toilets and places for praying are simultaneously private and public place, but for those
people who don’t identify as male or female, accessing these places might mean that they
have to reveal an intimately private aspect of their lives to strangers and authorities and
still can be denied access," he said.
Facebook has yet to comment on Pant's inquiry. Competing social media platform
Google+ has offered the "other" option since its launch.
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