Popular social networking website Facebook will soon press members to declare whether they are male or female, but transgender and intersex people will still be able to 'opt-out' and leave their gender as blank. The initiative seeks to end grammatical problems, says Facebook product manager Naomi Gleit. "Ever see a story about a friend who tagged 'themself' in a photo? 'Themself' isn't even a real word. We've used that in place of 'himself or herself.' We made that grammatical choice in order to respect people who haven't, until now, selected their sex on their profile." Facebook realizes gender is a sensitive issue for some users. "We've received pushback in the past from groups that find the male-female distinction too limiting," Gleit explains. "We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in mini-feed."