Nepali gay rights activist and parlimentarian Sunil Babu Pant has announced to quit Facebook if the popular social networking site did not pay heed to the concerns of the third gender and provided an other option for the users’ sex.

Issuing a statement on Friday, Pant expressed unhappiness over not getting a reply from Facebook regarding his request to allowing people who do not identify as male or female an equal opportunity to express themselves by adding an “other” under sex on Facebook profiles. He had written to Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley-based, last week.

“I have received no reply, which is really disappointing,” he said, “Many journalists have written to Facebook as well.”

He further expressed dissatisfaction over a statement of an official at Facebook that apparently said: “People can already opt out of showing their sex on their profile.”

“We’re constantly innovating on our products and features and we welcome input from everyone as we explore ways to improve the Facebook experience,” an unnamed Facebook spokesperson has been quoted in a blog published in ZDNET.com.

Pant dubbed the statement as irresponsible remarks, saying this shows Facebook is not respecting human diversity and still forcing third genders and gender variant people to be invisible. “…. This is outrageous and unacceptable. And I would like to say to Facebook that :Yes we also have a choice to opt out from Facebook altogether.”

“Until Facebook changes its position I am deactivating my Facebook account for now and if the genuine demand is not considered I will leave Facebook for good.”

Source: The Himalayan Times