Lyft will include gender neutral pronouns in its app
Update is part of the ridesharing app's "Two is Too Few" campaign highlighting how ingrained the gender binary is in society
Ridesharing app Lyft is adding gender neutral pronouns to its app, the company has announced.
The change, which comes ahead of Pride Month, will allow drivers to see a user’s preferred pronouns, TechCrunch reports. However, drivers won’t be able to share their own pronouns.
Lyft will also start addressing users by their preferred pronouns, and use those pronouns when referring to the user in the app.
The available options will be: They/them/theirs; She/her/hers; He/him/his; My pronoun isn’t listed; and Prefer not to say.
The update comes as part of Lyft’s 2019 Pride campaign, which also saw the company work with the National Center for Transgender Equality to offer name-change support services for transgender Lyft drivers — including $200 per driver towards name change fees and paperwork filing.
Joy Howard, Lyft’s chief marketing officer, said the addition of more pronoun options was part of the company’s “Two is Too Few” campaign, which seeks to highlight how prevalent the gender binary is in society.
Howard said in a call with press that it was part of making Lyft an “inclusive platform,” Mashable reports.
Lyft also highlighted its “Round Up and Donate” program, which allows riders to round their fare to the nearest dollar and give the spare change to a charity or organization.
The program has helped raised $3 million for the Human Rights Campaign — reportedly a popular option for riders — since 2017.
Lyft has worked to appeal to LGBTQ riders who use the app, including maintaining an anti-discrimination policy that outlaws discrimination against both passengers and drivers based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The company was also one of a number of major corporations that in April came out against Tennessee’s “Slate of Hate” — a series of Republican-backed bills that would targeted LGBTQ people in the state with various forms of discrimination.
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