From what I have seen location is optional too. you can go into your profile and remove your location or you can write in the space your location or like I have read on many posts people use location for putting ambiguous statements like I read one that said their location was somewhere in the universe. and I read other that stated fmtk (for me to know) and my favorite so far is somewhere over the rainbow (love that song)

there is an option for those that want to display their gender....place it in the status statement.. for example when I was not here during my vacation I placed in the status I was on vacation /getting married. when my babies were born I placed their names and weights in the status line until I could get in and make changes to my "about me"

I personally dont see a reason to *** a gender icon when we already have options that allow those of us to show whether we are male/female/ bglt/ what ever in other ways like in our profiles and status.