Trans-Friendly Registration Forms

Being a trans woman and a software engineer, one topic that interests me in our world of registration-based apps is how gender data is collected. So often, it is done in a way hostile to trans people — even when well-intentioned. But, by keeping several things in mind, you can easily keep your app’s registration trans-friendly.

Do You Need it at All?

Keep it mind it is quite possible to build many apps without ever collecting any sort of gender-based data. In some use cases, it is far more important than others, such as a dating site, where other users may be searching out a partner of a specific gender.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t collect this information, but ask yourself why you think this data is important. If you don’t have a good answer, why bother collecting it?

Pronouns

In terms of our ability to communicate with one another, what matters more than anything is pronouns. These are not tightly coupled with gender — someone might use she/her without being a woman if non-binary.

In general, it is probably better to think of pronouns as a text field than a select dropdown or something of that sort. This enables people to have a greater degree of flexibility, including with neopronouns (pronouns other than she, he, and they) as well…