Gay and transgender advocacy organizations are sure to 'like' Facebook's latest upgrade. They worked with the social media giant, which beginning Thursday will allow people to identify themselves as a gender other than male and female.

The new feature offers users in the United States up to 10 gender identifications including transgender and fluid and allows people to choose the personal pronoun they want to be referred to publicly.

Facebook says it wants everyone to feel comfortable being their true authentic self, but it's also allowing users to control the audience who sees a custom choice - an acknowledgment that some may face challenges in publicly sharing this information.