*eyeroll*

Really, LJ? Just when I was wondering whether or not to renew my paid account. Well, that's one decision made easier.

Signal boost from synecdochic:

* Gender will be a mandatory field at account creation, and it will be able to appear public on one's profile. (I can't tell if people with existing gender specification will be defaulted to "nobody can see it" or "everybody can see it".) (Subsequent changelog reading indicates that the public specificity has since been removed. It is unknown whether this is to require public specificity in the future or if it will remain private.)

* LiveJournal is removing the Unspecified option for the gender field. That's right: you get to be male or female. Period. That's it.

See synecdochic's entry here for more, including whom to spam complain feedback to.